It Takes Two
by BuryTheHatchet
Summary: What happens when two NCIS agents wake up in a hotel room, hung over, in Venice? For my reference: 3rd NCIS fic.
1. Chapter I

**Okay, those of you who are reading my other NCIS story, Her Return, may recall that I said that I would be writing another. I have spent a lot of time writing this one up, and so there is actually more of this than 'Her Return' written up.**

I. Buisness Before Pleasure

Ziva groaned. Her head was pounding. She cracked her eyes open and immediately stuffed her face into the pillow. The curtains were open. Had she really left the curtains open? She was usually very fastidious about closing the curtains before she went to sleep. How much had she had to drink last night? She couldn't remember, but the feeling in her head told her it was a lot. She inhaled, expecting the smell of her usual fabric conditioner, and being surprised when she didn't recognise the scent. She opened her eyes slowly, allowing them to adjust to the brightness, and looked down. Floral bedspread. She hadn't owned a floral bedspread since she was nine years old. She groaned again and sat up, cradling her head when the pain reverberated inside it.

"Hey." A familiar voice said from behind her. She spun round, regretting the effect it had upon her head. "Did I wake you?"

"No." She smiled. "Woke up naturally."

"Please tell me you're head hurts as much as mine does?" The man said as he stood up from the armchair in the corner of the hotel room.

"I cannot believe that anybody's head could hurt _more_ than mine. What happened last night? I cannot remember anything." She said, scanning the room for her blouse, the closest thing she could find being his shirt, which she reached for and slipped on, buttoning it up and slipping out from under the covers. She tugged the curtains closed slightly and climbed back into bed.

"I can't remember, either." He sighed and stretched. "But I sure wish I could." He chuckled. She threw a sock that had been hung over the lampshade at him.

"Hey!" He cried and she laughed. "What was that for?"

"You know exactly what that was for." She paused. "Why are we in a hotel room?"

"I don't know, but according to the menu we are in Venice." He tossed her the room service menu.

"What are we doing in Venice?" She rubbed her forehead.

"Not a clue." He laughed. "But I doubt last night was work related."

"Well, you never know." She chuckled slightly.

"You want a shower before or after breakfast?" He asked, picking articles of clothing up from where they were littered around the room.

"Before." She smiled as he paused when he picked up a black, lacy bra.

"Ziva David, I never had you pinned as a lace sort of woman." He laughed, folding it neatly on top of the pile of her clothes in his arms.

"Well, you do not know somebody until you _know_ them." She smiled.

"Very true."

"I am going to have my shower." She breezed out of the room, picking the black undergarment off of the top of the pile with a smirk. He shook his head with a smile. "Oh, and Tony?" She leaned her head outside the bathroom door. "Your shirt." She balled the garment up and threw it to him.


	2. Chapter II

**Seeing as the first was so short, I have decided to upload the second one as well. Enjoy!**

II. Hope is a Good Breakfast

They sat at a table in the courtyard of the hotel, Ziva picking apart a croissant and Tony watching her. "Is there a problem, Tony?" She smiled as he leaned back in the wrought iron chair and grinned.

"Not at all." He chuckled.

"You have not touched your toast." She nodded to his plate.

He smiled, picking up the piece of bread and taking a bite out of it. "Happy?"

"Yes." She grinned, pulling her phone out of her jean pocket as it rang. "McGee." She grinned.

"Ziva, the boss wants to know when you'll be back. He says that now the case is over you can get an earlier flight." McGee said over the telephone as she clicked the speaker phone on.

"Our flight is tomorrow morning, is it not?" She asked, looking at her watch.

"Yeah, but I can get you seats on a plane tonight, you'll need to be at the airport by 4pm Venice time." He said and yawned.

"Problem with the time difference, Sleepy?" Tony smirked.

"Yeah, you two get to have fun in Venice whilst I am stuck in MTAC just living in Venetian time."

"We are working, McGee, not having fun." Ziva said, grinning at Tony as she spoke.

"If you say so." Gibbs said down the phone. "McGee, why is there no visual?"

"I…didn't think it was necessary, boss." The agent said. "Ziva, turn your laptop on." She lifted the screen up and hit the button to enable the video chat, moving around the table so she and Tony could see the image of McGee, Gibbs and the Director on the screen, along with the MTAC geeks along the side whom Tony loved to play pranks on.

"Good Morning." Jenny smiled as the two agents leaned around the table so they could both be in the camera's view.

"Good Morning, Director." They said in unison.

"Sleep well, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

"Like a baby." Tony replied quickly, regretting his fast response.

"How 'bout you, David?" He asked.

"Er, good, thank you." She nodded. "How did you sleep?"

"Better now we caught him." Gibbs shrugged. "McGee has you booked on a earlier flight tonight. We write reports and debrief when you get back, then you get the weekend off." He nodded and smiled.

"Good work out there." The Director nodded. "Agent McGee will send you your flight info." And with that the screen went black.

"Too bad we don't get one last night in Venice." Tony sighed, eating the last bite of his toast finishing the dregs of his coffee off.

"Yes, too bad indeed." She paused, standing up. "Although I have not fully regained my memory of last night, the parts that I do remember were very good." She smiled. "Ready?"

"Mmhm." He stood up next to her. "You know, we still have nine hours till we need to be at the airport."

"What are you suggesting?" She smirked as he unlocked the door to their bedroom.

"And you say my mind's always in the gutter." He laughed

"I do not believe that I have ever told you that your mind is in…the gutter?" She frowned and placed her laptop on the sofa.

"It's an expression." He said, shaking his head. "Never mind. No, what I was suggesting is we go and sightsee. Together."

"I do not see why not." She smiled, starting to scrape her hair back into a ponytail.

"Leave, your hair down. I like it down." He said quietly and smiled, removing her hands from the top of her head.

"It is not practical down, it gets into my eyes." She stared into his face as he held her hands by her side, analysing every movement of his features as he did the same with her, each searching for a flicker of doubt.

"Well," He said after a long moment. "We can't have that now, can we? A compromise, then; half up, half down."

She swallowed and nodded, still not averting her eyes from his.

* * *

"You realise that we cannot do this ever again." Ziva stated as she lay in Tony's arms.

"The dreaded rule 12." Tony laughed quietly, without much humour.

"And of course Gibbs will know as soon as he sees us that something happened."

"If he doesn't already, you saw the way he looked at us earlier when they called us." Tony sighed. "I swear that man can read minds." They both chuckled sleepily.

"We never did go sightseeing." Ziva looked at the little bronze clock on the nightstand. Half twelve. They had tried to tidy the room up when they got back, but that just resulted in the room growing more messy, particularly the bed that she had just finished making when Tony pushed her down onto it.

"There's still time if you want." He kissed her temple, allowing the scent of her lily-scented shampoo to brush his nose.

"I just want to stay here." She rested her head on her chest. "We have a long flight, we might as well get some sleep." Her voice softened dreamily as she started to drift off. Tony looked at their entwined hands, her thin, elegant but powerful fingers wrapped around his. Her hands were softer than he expected. He always thought that she would have hard, cold hands to fit their chiselled appearance, but they were the complete opposite, warm and soft, with silky smooth skin. He found it ironic how the daintiest hands he had ever held were also the most violent. He allowed himself to doze off to sleep with thoughts of lilies and porcelain hands.


	3. Chapter III

**Another short one. Sorry. I am glad everybody seems to be enjoying it so far. I hope that continues, I have loved reading all of your reviews.**

III. When in Rome

"Yeah, McGoo, we're sitting in the terminal right now." Tony sighed into the phone. "Yes, we will get a cab back to the navy yard when we land." He groaned. "Probie, we're boarding the plane now, the flight attendant is telling me to turn my phone off. Have to go." He said quickly.

"Tony, we have not even had our passports and boarding passes checked yet for boarding." Ziva cracked her knuckles.

"I just wanted him to stop talking." Tony yawned.

"If you hadn't spent so much time watching me sleep instead of sleeping yourself then you wouldn't be tired now." She smiled.

"I'll sleep on the plane." He said, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"Tony…" Ziva sighed, leaning into his hand as it brushed across her cheek and then shaking her head slowly. "No matter how much we want it, we can't."

"What is it that you want exactly, Miss Ziva David?"

"I do not entirely know." She whispered, watching his expression.

"Then how can you know you don't want it enough to break Gibbs rules?"

"I cannot. But I know that it is a dangerous path, not to be trodden lightly. What is it that you want?"

"I want a nice house, great car, a wife who cooks really good Italian food, and a swimming pool." He grinned.

"You have it all planned out." Ziva laughed. "But what do you really want, Tony?"

"That look. The one in your eyes right now." He said, trying to fathom what emotion it was in his colleague's eyes as she stared into his.

"What look would that be?" She said, looking away so he could not see her emotions.

"Devotion maybe." He sighed. He knew what the emotion was. He had seen love before. Never like hers though. But she wouldn't admit it even to herself, he could see that too. He had seen her look at him in the way she was now, never before realising why. It had always looked so pained. "I'm sorry."

"Why? What do you have to be sorry about?" She looked at him.

"Oh, I don't know. Teasing you. Hurting you. Prying into your life." He sighed.

"Those are the things that make you DiNozzo. Do not apologise for them." She smiled, stroking his cheek gently. "It is a sign of weakness, apologising." She grinned, the deep moment gone for the minute.

"According to Gibbs." Tony nodded. "You know, his damn set of rules may very well be the end of me." He laughed.

"Yes, although some have saved both of our lives on more than one occasion." She laughed with him. "And for that I will always be grateful." They both stood up and moved to board the plane, Tony placing his hand on the small of her back, smiling when she frowned at him.

"Until DC, I do not care how many of Gibbs' rules I break, particularly number 12. Besides, we already broke it multiple times in the hotel." He smiled and shrugged. "When in Rome."

"Tony, we are in Venice, not Rome."


	4. Chapter IV

**A slightly longer one, and a bit more case related for a while.**

IV. Great Trees Cast More Shadow Than Fruit

"Gibbs, in here!" McGee called, standing in the doorway to an upstairs bedroom of the house.

"What do you got, McGee?" He asked, taking the stairs two at a time to stand looking into a nursery. "Hello, there." Gibbs said, walking over to the crib and scooping the small infant up in his arms.

"Boss, the liutenant and his wife had a daughter." Tony said as he climbed the stairs of the crime scene.

"I know, we've got her here." The boss said, bouncing the three-month old in his arms.

"No, boss, an older daughter, I'd say from the photos she's about six." DiNozzo said, handing McGee a photo frame.

"They looked happy." Tim sighed. The Lieutenant had died in a training exercise gone wrong and his wife had been shot the next day. It was awful.

"Yeah, well, they aren't going to be too happy anymore." Tony said.

"I have searched the whole house for the girl, cannot find her anywhere. Do you think she has been kidnapped?" Ziva asked, joining the crowd in the entrance to the nursery.

"Yeah, it's a possibility!" Gibbs snapped.

"I will get a BOLO out now." She ran down the stairs and took her phone out, the group at the top of the stairs dispersing, McGee going back to bagging evidence, Tony back to scene photos and Gibbs taking the baby down for Ducky to check for any problems.

"Since nobody reported hearing gunfire and she wasn't found until the postman came to drop her mail off, I reckon they used a silencer. Abby will tell us for sure." The pathologist said, placing his hat on his head. "Lets get her home, Mr Palmer."

"Duck, I need you to check this one for injury." He handed the child to Ducky just as she started wailing.

"Well, she certainly has a set of lungs on her." He chuckled. "Oh, you have a lovely nose."

"Duck." Jethro cautioned. "Is she alright?" Just then a cop came in, looking like he had been running.

"You Gibbs?" He pointed as the agent nodded. "There's a little girl in a tree down the road, neighbour identified her as the daughter of the victim. She climbs higher every time someone tries to get her down."

"Got it. ZIVA!" He yelled the Israeli's name.

"Gibbs." She ran through.

"I want you to go with him to the elder daughter. She is sat in a tree. No one is to try and get her down until I join you. Understand?"

"Yes, boss." She said, following the man out of the door and down the street. "Sir, can you step back please." She said to a man who was walking to the base of the trunk.

"She's so high up!" His panicked voice pleaded with her.

"I can see that, could you just step back sir." She steered him back to the gathering crowd. "Could you get these people out of here?" She asked the police officer who had escorted her to the tree. He complied and started pushing the people backwards.

"Here." Gibbs slung a pink backpack over her shoulder as he walked up to her.

"What is this?" She asked.

"Negotiations. You get her down." Gibbs said.

"No, Gibbs, I am not very good with children, I think you would be much more suited." Ziva said, frowning.

"Ducky reckons her mother's killer was a man of about my height judging by the angle of the bullets entrance. I don't want to spook her."

Ziva exhaled. "Ok. What is her name?"

"Elsie." Gibbs said.

She breathed again, trying to calm herself down. It was just a child, how hard could it be to gain a child's trust? She moved closer to the tree. "Hello, there. My name is Ziva, I would like to talk to you." She inched closer.

"Okay." The small voice replied.

"Do you mind if I join you? Then I will not have to shout." She watched as the girl nodded and she started to climb the tree, picking her path carefully, testing each branch before balancing her weight upon it. "It is a long climb." Ziva smiled, sitting on the branch on the other side of the trunk to the child. "I am with NCIS, we want to help you." She said. "What is your name?"

"Elsie." The girl whispered.

"That is a very pretty name." Ziva smiled as kindly as she could. "You did very well to climb this tree."

"Daddy taught me to climb trees." Elsie whispered. "My Mummy and Daddy are dead."

"I am sorry." Ziva said. "Elsie, what is your sister's name?"

"Mina, she's still a baby." The little girl said, tugging at her dungarees.

"Mina is safe, we are looking after her." Ziva smiled. "Would you like to go and see her?"

The girl shook her head. "I want to stay up here. It looks nice from up here."

"Ok, we can stay up here. I have to agree; it looks very pretty from up here. Do you mind if I join you on that branch?"

"Okay." The small voice said again and Ziva climbed skilfully across to the same branch. "Did your Daddy teach you to climb trees?"

"Yes." Ziva laughed.

"I like the way you talk." Elsie smiled for the first time.

"Thank you." Ziva nodded. She guessed she was doing ok.

"What is in the bag?"

"I do not know." Ziva smiled. "Shall we have a look?" She unzipped the pink backpack and pulled out two juice cartons. She read the label and smiled. "I used to drink something similar when I was a little girl." She handed one to the child and kept one for herself, piercing the lid with the straw.

"I like these. How did you know I like these?"

"It was a very lucky guess." Ziva smiled and removed the next item from the bag. "Do you like cupcakes?" She smiled, placing a chocolate chip cupcake in the empty palm of the child as she slurped juice from the carton in her other little hand.

"Yeah." She took a bite and grinned. "Is there anything else in the bag?" She asked, trying to peer into the dark bag.

"There is one last thing." Ziva reached in and pulled out a soft toy monkey. "Is this yours?" She smiled.

"That's Narna." The girl nodded, eating another mouthful of cupcake and taking another sip of juice.

"Narna?" Ziva frowned, looking at the monkey. He looked rather sorry for himself. He had lost an ear at some point in his life and had the wound stitched up, along with what looked like scars from previous surgeries crisscrossing his original stitching.

"Like 'Banana' only just the middle bit." The little girl handed Ziva the empty carton and cupcake paper. "I'm tired. Can we go down now?" She asked quietly.

"Of course we can." Ziva smiled. "Would you like to climb onto my back so I can carry you?"

"Please." The child nodded and Ziva placed the litter from their little treetop picnic into the bag and then tossed the little pink rucksack down to where Gibbs stood, missing Gibbs by about a foot and hitting DiNozzo in the head. Ziva, standing on a branch next to the one they had sat on, allowed the child to climb onto her shoulders, told her to hold on and then began the descent down, making sure every three branches or so that Elsie was alright. As she hopped down off the last branch, Elsie's grip appeared to grow slightly tighter. "Thank you." She whispered into Ziva's ear as she let go and dropped to the ground, staying slightly behind Ziva when McGee, Tony and Gibbs drew closer.

"These are my friends." She crouched down to be the same height as the girl. "This is Agent Gibbs," she pointed to the older man, "Agent McGee." She pointed to Tim, "And this is…"

"Very special agent Tony DiNozzo." He jumped in, earning a scowl from Ziva.

"Why are you _very_ special?" She asked.

"Because he needs a lot more encouragement than the rest of us to work." McGee whispered loudly, making Elsie giggle.

"You have been a very brave girl." Ziva said, placing her NCIS cap on the child's head. "That is for you to keep."

"Thank you." Elsie said. "Where am I going to live?"

"Well, we'll think about that later, but right now I want my doctor friend to take a look at you, is that ok?" Gibbs asked, smiling as she nodded and slipped her hand into Ziva's.


	5. Chapter V

**I like the last little bit, I'm having a lot of fun with this one.**

V. It's a Sin to Kill a Mockingbird

"Yours or mine tonight?" Tony asked quietly as they stood in the elevator together on their way to Abby's lab.

"Mine, my bed is more comfortable." She smiled. They had created a policy of never initiating more physical contact with one another than was necessary and never discussing plans anywhere other than the elevator when they were alone. She smirked to herself. If someone were to bug the elevator the safety of the world could be in danger, considering how many secret conferences and private discussions took place in there.

"You also have better beer." He shrugged and she elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow! Was that entirely necessary?"

"You know that you could just buy that brand of beer, and then your beer would be the same as mine?" She said, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Very true." He said as the door pinged and they stepped out. "Abby! How are you this fine morning?"

"Good, Tony." She beamed. "I have only had the bullet for a little bit, but I can tell you that they definitely used a silencer." She grinned, slotting in between the two of them and slinging her arms around their shoulders, guiding them over to her desk. "Ducky was right about the angle of trajectory, there is a 78% chance that the murderer was a male the same height as Gibbs. There was absolutely no forensic evidence in the house. I don't think there that our murderer stayed for afternoon tea."

"It looks like they knocked on the door, waited for Mrs Carlin to open it, shot her, closed the door and left." Ziva said. "Professional."

"Do your crazy Mossad ninja skills tell you this?" Tony laughed.

"It was clean, efficient." She shrugged, ignoring Tony's mocking.

"You got anything else for us?" Tony asked.

"Come back later, then I might have some more." She smiled.

"Good job, Abby." He said, placing a Caf-Pow in front of the happy Goth.

"Hey." Tony said to Elsie who sat in his chair as he and Ziva walked into the squad room.

"Hey." She replied back

"You doing ok?" He asked.

"Yeah." She sighed. Tony ruffled the short brown hair of the girl and jumped up, walking to Ziva with an excited look on his face.

"You know who she reminds me of?" He said eagerly.

"No, Tony. Why do you have to equate everything to a movie?" She groaned.

"It's part of my charm." He spread his arms wide. "Scout."

"Scout?"

"Yeah, Jean-Louise Finch." Tony said.

"From 'To Kill a Mockingbird'." Ziva smiled and nodded. "A book reference for once."

"No I was talking about the film version of it." Tony nodded. "She has the same haircut, very similar dungarees." Ziva shook her head and laughed.

"Hey!" Gibbs said, walking up behind DiNozzo. "You got anything?"

"No boss, nothing that we didn't know at the scene."

Gibbs sighed and looked at his watch. "It's late, we're not gonna get anything done tonight. Go home, get some sleep. We pick it up tomorrow morning."

"You sure boss?"

"No DiNozzo, that's why I just told you to go home! Where's McGee?!"

"Here boss. I think I've got something." He carried his laptop over. "This is a file the Lieutenant was working on before he, er, boss…" He pointed to Elsie as she watched them.

"Just get on with it."

"Anyway, none of his other files were encrypted, but this one is encrypted big time, I mean, I don't know if I can read it."

"He was killed in a training accident, Probie." Tony hissed in his ear.

"Good job, McGee." Gibbs said, "Go home."

* * *

"Tony." Ziva sat bolt upright in bed, her gun clutched in her hand and pointed towards her bedroom door. "Did you hear that?"

"What, you waking me up in the middle of the night? Yeah."

"No, there is somebody else in my apartment." She kicked his shin and he sighed, grabbing his gun and slipping out of bed, pausing when he heard a noise.

"I was going to make a joke about Mossad and paranoia, but now I think you might be right." He said, walking to the door with her. "Ready?"

She nodded and pushed the door open as he flicked the light switch.

"Put your hands where I can see them!" She yelled, lowering her gun when she saw whom it was laying a blanket on her sofa.

"McGeek, What are you doing here?!" Tony yelled.

"Uh, I could ask you the same thing." Tim said.

"No, you couldn't. Let me rephrase the question, what the hell are you doing here?"

"My apartment sprung a leak."

"So you broke into _my_ apartment?" Ziva raised her eyebrows.

"I thought you would be more understanding than Tony." He shrugged. "How long have you two been…"

"Been what, Probie?"

"Sleeping together." McGee said.

"How do you know that we were not doing paperwork?" Ziva asked.

"Because you are in one of Tony's Ohio State t-shirts and he is in just his boxers. I don't think they are paperwork clothes." He smiled.

"Venice." Tony sighed.

"Wow, you managed to keep this quiet for two months. Firstly, I think that is a new relationship record for you Tony, and it is most definitely the longest you have kept quiet about a relationship." McGee laughed.

"Do you want to sleep on my sofa or not, McGee?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, I know why you have to keep it quiet, Rule 12: never date a co-worker." Tim exclaimed, smiling. "So who else knows?"

"Nobody." Ziva said.

"Rule 4." Tony said. "The best way to keep a secret? Keep it to yourself. Second best? Tell one other person – if you must. There is no third best. You appear to be the second best option."

"Tony, I'm sorry." McGee sighed as Tony glared at him.

"You better be, Probie."

"Come on, Tony." Ziva turned to him, placing a hand on his chest. "Lets go back to bed." She leaned up and kissed him, smiling as she tugged his arm towards the bedroom. "Goodnight, McGee." She called through to him.


	6. Chapter VI

VI. Fire is a Good Servant, But a Poor Master

"Good morning, beautiful." Tony smiled as Ziva rolled over in his arms. "Breakfast?"

"Mm…toast." She smiled.

"With?"

"Marmalade." She slid out of bed and stretched. "There is a new jar."

"Okay." He jumped up and walked out of the room. "Bahg! McGee!" Tony yelled, running back into the bedroom, grabbing a shirt and jeans. "You might want to put more clothes on than just my t-shirt."

"You forgot that McGee was sleeping on my couch." She grinned, standing in front of him.

"You remembered?" He said. "And you didn't tell me? McGee just saw me in my boxers!" He exclaimed.

"I think you look good in your boxers." She flicked her eyes up and down his body.

"Yeah, but I don't think McGeek is so into this look." He said.

"Aw, poor Tony." She stroked his chin. She kissed him and pulled on a pair of cargo pants. "Come on, I am hungry." She grinned.

"Tony, I'm sorry." McGee said as they walked through.

"McGoo." Tony glared. "You're eating the last of my cereal."

"Oh, I, uh…" He dropped the spoon.

"Tony, I can buy you another box." Ziva kissed his cheek as she placed bread in the toaster.

"It's principle, Ziva. You don't eat another man's coco-pops."

"I did not think men ate coco-pops." She grinned.

"We have been through this," Tony said, wrapping his arms around her waist. "The food does not make the man, the clothes make the man."

"If you say so, mon petit pois." She kissed his nose.

* * *

"Can I just…how did you manage to keep this a secret?" McGee asked as they stood in the elevator together.

"Not very well, obviously." Tony sighed.

"Yes, and if anybody else finds out I will start with your fingers and not stop until every bone in your body is broken. Is that clear, McGee?" Ziva asked, holding his tie so he could not look away.

"Crystal." He nodded.

"You two need some time alone?" Gibbs asked as the elevator doors opened.

"Er, no, boss, Ziva was just clarifying a couple of points on interrogation and torture techniques." Tim stuttered as she let go of his tie.

"You wish to share them with all of us, David?"

"No, Gibbs, that is quite alright." She smiled.

"Glad we've cleared that up. Come on." He stepped into the elevator and hit a button.

"Where're we going, boss?" Tony asked, frowning.

"The foster home where Elsie and Mina stayed last night was burnt down." Gibbs stated. "Tony and Ziva are going to organise a safe-house. McGee, you're going to go and investigate the fire."

"Er, what about you, boss?" The computer geek asked, frowning.

"Well, I'm going to go pick the girls up McGee." He said, slapping Tim on the back of the head.

"Of course you are, boss."

* * *

"I hate this job." Tony grumbled as he dropped a mouldy coffee cup into the bin.

"Stop complaining!" Ziva snapped.

"What I don't get is why there can't be a housekeeping team that does this." He sniffed a dirty sock that he picked up and immediately dropped it again.

"Because it is always you that makes the mess." Ziva sighed, placing a pizza box in the bin.

"Actually, I think you were the last one to use this safe-house." Tony said, pulling a face at the content of the fridge. "Why would anybody stock a fridge for a few days and not remove the items afterwards?"

"We are going to need somewhere for Mina to sleep." Ziva looked at the table that she had finished cleaning.

"Ah, yeah…" Tony sighed. "The boss is gonna kill us. Where do you get a travel cot quickly?"

"I do not know." She looked at him.

"Don't you have a contact? You have contacts for everything."

"Not for getting baby supplies!" She threw her hands up in the air.

"Well, why didn't you ever think about that?" Tony yelled.

"I do not know!" She screamed back as she turned around and walked out of the front door to the tiny bungalow, sitting down on the porch and putting her head in her hands.

* * *

"Well can you tell me what accelerant was used?" McGee asked, growing frustrated with the fire investigator.

"Not until I have got tests run."

"Then can I take samples back to the NCIS forensics lab for analysis?"

"Nope, can't do that." The investigator shook his head.

"Why not?"

"It's not protocol." He said. "Why do you navy cops think this is your case, anyways?"

"Two of the children who were in there were orphaned yesterday when their mother was murdered. Their father was a navy lieutenant who was killed in a training accident two days ago. So now that an attempt on their life has been made, we are thinking someone is trying to silence this family for some reason."

"Why didn't you say so? I have a son and if anyone tried to hurt him, boy I don't know what I'd do…" He shook his head. "I'll get those samples and photos you asked for." He walked away and McGee grit his teeth.

* * *

"Hey, you and DiNozzo finished in the house?" Gibbs said as he stepped up onto the decked porch carrying Elsie in one arm and a car seat in the other.

"I am not sure. I had a headache, sorry, boss." She stood up. "Hello, Elsie, how are you today."

"Sleepy." The little girl yawned and placed her head on Gibbs shoulder.

"Well, there is a bed ready for you inside. I am sure it will not be a problem if you want to sleep." Ziva smiled and opened the door, amazed to see that Tony had finished tidying the whole house whilst she was outside.

"Boss, how'd you like it? Me and Ziva worked really hard." He smiled at her apologetically as he finished polishing the table.

"I'm surprised. I thought I left this place in a real mess the last time I was here." Gibbs looked around and grinned. "Good job, both of you."

"Gibbs, there was one slight problem." Ziva sighed. "We do not have anywhere for Mina to sleep."

"Back of my car, there's a travel cot." He shrugged as they looked at one another and rolled their eyes. "What?" He asked, placing the girls down.

"There was a slight heated discussion over where to get the cot from, that's all." Tony shrugged, smiling. "I'll go put the cot up."


	7. Chapter VII

VII. A Secret is Between Two; When a Third is Involved, it is No Secret

"Hey, I'll see you tomorrow." Tony kissed Ziva as they stood on the front porch.

"Yes." She sighed. "Have fun." She nodded in the direction of the bungalow.

"Why can't Gibbs do this one, I mean I have no idea how you deal with children?" Tony murmured in her ear.

"Tony, he left an hour ago. You do not need to whisper." She smiled softly, stroking the side of his face.

"Yes, but he has supersonic hearing. He could hear a pin drop ten miles away."

"Ok, if you are certain." She laughed.

"I love you, but shhh, cause he'll hear us." He laughed, masking the seriousness of his comment with humour. "Bye." He pressed one last kiss on her lips and waved as she climbed into her car. She shook her head and drove off. He really did live in a different world to the rest of them.

* * *

"McGee, is your apartment fixed yet?" Ziva asked, walking over to his desk.

"Er, should be." He sighed.

"Good. I have to stay late tonight."

"Why?"

"I have to talk to Ducky about something, not that it is any of your business." She said, walking away.

"What have we got?" Gibbs walked through.

"Abby said that whoever set the fire used acetone as an accelerant. They smashed the front window with a brick and then doused the ground floor with acetone, the insulating and carpeting upstairs was apparently flammable but because of the house being a historical building they were not allowed to renovate it. It wasn't perceived to be a safety hazard."

"But it was, McGee!" Gibbs yelled. "You got anywhere with the computer?"

"Er, yes, but its still not decrypted. About half way through."

"Ziva, anything?"

"Lieutenant Carlin was a private man. Apparently the only things he ever spoke about were his daughters." Ziva shrugged.

"Not his wife?" McGee asked.

"Not that anyone can remember. One colleague said he remembered meeting her once maybe, but she was a lot like him, quiet, not remarkable in anyway."

"They have to have taken their daughters out somewhere, someone has to have seen them, made friends with them, something." Gibbs said.

"Elsie said that the lieutenant taught her to climb trees. Maybe a park?" Ziva said, sitting on the edge of her desk.

"Maybe. It's late." He looked at his watch. Half eight. The days seemed to be getting shorter. He looked between the two agents who sat at their desks working. "Go on, home." He nodded, smiling as McGee jumped up and grabbed his bag.

"Night, boss." He said as he walked into the elevator.

"You going home, David?"

"Er, I just have some things to finish up." She smiled.

"Something you want to talk about?" He asked, looking at what she was doing. "That paperwork can be done once you finish this case."

"I want to get it done before I forget about it."

"Go home."

She looked at him and smiled. "Okay." She nodded. Standing up and walking to the stairs.

"Not taking the elevator?" He asked.

"No, I just want to walk tonight." She nodded again as he stepped into the elevator. "Goodnight, boss."

* * *

"Ziva dear, why is it you wanted to see me so late at night?" Ducky smiled as the liaison officer walked into autopsy.

"I need to talk to you."

"Yes, that part was clear." He chuckled.

"Mr Palmer will not just burst in on us, will he?" She asked, not standing still.

"No, he has gone home for the night." Ducky frowned. "Ziva, what is wrong?"

She walked around autopsy deep in thought before turning and walking up to him. "I think I might be pregnant."

"Ah…" He sighed. "What do you need from me?"

"I need you to confirm it for me, please Ducky?" She looked at him.

"What is wrong with a standard pregnancy test?"

"Not reliable enough." She swallowed and ran her hand through her hair.

"I can get Abby to run blood tests"

"I do not want anybody else to know. Please?" She pleaded.

"My lips are sealed." He smiled kindly. "Hop on here." He patted the steal slab.

"How long will the tests take?" She asked as he prepared to take blood.

"I have seen Abby get results in a few hours." He smiled.

"And you will not tell her that that is my blood." Ziva asked.

"Not if you do not want me to." He finished, placing the sample in an evidence bag. "Might I venture as to enquire about the father?"

"No." She smiled. "I might not even be pregnant."

"You wouldn't be here if you didn't suspect." Ducky smiled as she hopped of the table.

"No, if I did not suspect I was pregnant then I would not need you to run tests for me." She frowned.

"A good point." He laughed. "I'll get this to Abby first thing tomorrow."

"Thank you, Ducky." She nodded.

"Goodnight, Ziva. Sleep well."

"You too, Ducky." She smiled and left.

* * *

"Why, officer David, did it take you half an hour to walk four flights of stairs?" Gibbs asked as he leaned against her mini.

"I took a detour." She said, placing her bag in her car.

"A detour?" He asked.

"I needed to talk to Ducky about something." She said, climbing into the red car.

"Something I should know?" He raised his eyebrows.

"No, boss." She smiled. "May I go home now?"

"Sure." He grinned and walked away. She shook her head and slammed the door closed. He couldn't know already. She didn't even know. She watched him climb into his own car and drive away, then leaned her head against the steering wheel. Tiredness was creeping into her head and she placed the key in the ignition, jetting away from the parking space and heading to her empty apartment.


	8. Chapter VIII

VIII. No Man is an Island.

"Ducky!" Abby grinned. "What brings you up here so early?"

"I have a blood sample that I need you to run tests on." He handed the evidence bag to her. "It doesn't need DNA." He smiled.

"Why not?"

"Because I have dental records on the way to identify this Jane Doe. DNA would be unnecessary." He bluffed.

"Er, ok…" She said. "Is there anything particular I'm looking for?"

"Check the hormone levels." He nodded. "Must dash, I need to start an autopsy." He hurried out of her lab and she frowned.

"There's something very hinky going on around here." She said to her lab equipment, narrowing her eyes.

* * *

"You bought coco-pops." Tony grinned as Ziva placed the cereal box on the table.

"Yes, I hope you like them." She said to Elsie.

"I thought grown men don't eat coco-pops." She said, nodding.

"That is what I thought too," Ziva sat next to her, cradling the three month old in her arms as Tony handed over the formula. "But Tony does not listen to what I say."

"That's not true." He said, pouring cereal and milk into a bowl for Elsie. "I listen."

"You just do not take it aboard."

"On board." He grinned. "You seem quiet, are you ok?"

"Yes, I am fine." Ziva nodded, smiling weakly as she focused on feeding the child.

"Do you have any apple juice?" Elsie asked, looking up at Ziva.

"I have orange juice or raspberry and apple juice, but the shop did not have any apple juice, sorry."

"I'll have orange juice please." She asked, smiling.

"You have very good manners." Tony smiled as he walked to the kitchen area to pour a glass of orange juice.

"Daddy always said that manners cost nothing but not using manners costs everything. I don't really know what that means." She sighed.

"I think it means that if you don't use manners it can hurt people and make them sad, but manners are free and so you can use them all the time." Tony said, handing her the glass.

"Thank you." She smiled. "Do you live here?"

"No." Ziva chuckled. "This is just a place where we protect people." She smiled.

"Are you protecting us because mummy and daddy are dead?"

"Yeah, sweetie." Tony placed a hand on her head and ruffled her boyish haircut.

"Elsie, did your mummy or daddy ever take you out anywhere, to a park or somewhere?" Ziva asked, looking up from the infant in her arms.

"Daddy took me to the forest on the weekends so we could climb trees. Mummy used to come when we took the tent."

"Did you have any friends who went with you?" Ziva asked, placing the empty bottle on the table and shifting Mina in order to burp her.

"Sometimes daddy's friend from the hospital comes with us, but mummy doesn't like it when Tyler comes with us because he says funny things sometimes."

"Well, I need to get going." Tony stood up, placing his and Elsie's bowls in the sink.

"Okay." Ziva smiled, placing Mina down in the cot that Tony set up next to the sofa. "Are you going to be okay for a second whilst I talk to Tony?" She asked Elsie, smiling.

"Mm-hm." She nodded, hopping down from the table and walking to the sofa and sitting on it. Tony and Ziva walked out of the bungalow, pulling the door closed slightly.

"You look good with Mina." He said, pulling her in and kissing her.

"Daddy used to kiss mummy like that." Tony and Ziva leapt apart as Elsie stood in the doorway. They looked at each other and then at the girl.

"Ok, can you pretend that you never saw that?" Tony crouched down to be the same height as her.

"You mean if someone asks me if I saw you kissing Ziva then I should lie?" She asked

"No, just don't tell anybody, ok?" He smiled.

"Were you not supposed to be kissing?" She asked.

"Yeah, something like that." Tony grinned.

"Do you love her?" She asked, playing with his tie.

He paused. "Yes, I love her very much." He smiled, blushing slightly as Ziva brushed past him inside.

"Is that because she's very beautiful?"

"It's one of the reasons." Tony smiled.

"Why aren't you allowed to kiss her if you love her then?"

"Well, because we work together it's not allowed." He shrugged.

"That's not fair." She sighed, patting his head.

"No, I don't think it is." He sighed. "I have to go to work now, ok?"

"Ok, bye bye, Tony." She smiled and waved as Ziva walked out the door with Mina in her arms.

"Come on." Ziva nodded inside. "Do you want to make cookies?"

"With chocolate chips?" Elsie asked.

"Of course." Ziva grinned, closing the door behind them.

* * *

"Gibbs said you wanted to talk to me." Ziva walked into Abby's lab.

"Oh my gosh, Ziva, congrats!" She ran up to Ziva and hugged her.

"What is this all in aid of?" She smiled, bewildered, as Abby stepped back.

"I ran the blood sample Ducky gave me." The chirpy Goth grinned.

"I do not know what you are talking about." Ziva shrugged.

"Ah, Ziva, what are you doing here?" Ducky asked as he walked into the lab.

"I have her blood test results." Abby grinned.

"Ducky, I told you not to tell anybody who's blood it was!" She hissed at him.

"And I told you, miss Sciuto, that an ID was not necessary." Ducky said grumpily.

"I was worried about you." She scowled. "Why don't you want anybody to know that you are pregnant?"

"So I am?" She looked at the forensic scientist, her eyes wide.

"Positive. 100%" Abby grinned, frowning when Ziva didn't share her enthusiasm. "This is a good thing, Ziva."

"Yes, you are correct." She smiled.

"Who's the father?" Abby jumped up and down, clinging onto Ziva's arm.

"Abigail, calm down. I am sure that Ziva does not need your energetic Q and A session." Ducky placed a hand on either woman's shoulders.

"Don't call me Abigail." She protested.

"Abby, I will tell you all about it when I am ready." Ziva sighed. "But for now I am going to keep this a secret and you will do the same."

"Ah, well…" She bit her lip.

"Abby, who have you told?" She threatened.

"I didn't exactly tell him, he was just here when it dinged." Her pigtails bounced as she shrugged.

"Who?"

"Gibbs." She looked apologetic. "He wanted to know why I was running your DNA."

"So Gibbs knows?" The Israeli leaned her head back against the wall. She tapped her chin. She wanted to be able to sit down with him and talk about it. She also needed to talk to Tony. That was going to be a fun conversation. And the director. She needed to talk to the director. Maybe that conversation could wait? She exhaled and looked between Ducky and Abby. "Nobody else is to know, please?" She said, walking out of the lab. "Oh, and thank you. Both of you." She smiled, turning back quickly.

Abby squealed when she knew that Ziva had left. "This is so exciting!" She exclaimed. "Ziva's going to be a Mum!"

"Abby." Ducky smiled and shook his head. "Ziva doesn't handle emotions the same way you do. This probably scares her."

"But Ducky, this should be the best thing that will ever happen to her."

"I am sure it will be, you just have to let her move at her own pace." The old man smiled and nodded. "Don't rush her." He smiled gently and left.

* * *

"Hey, what's wrong?" Abby sat down next to Ziva in the break room.

"Nothing. Why would anything be wrong?"

"Because you look sad." Abby sighed.

"Worried, that is all."

"What about?"

"I cannot see Tony as a parent, I cannot see him being happy about this." She leaned back in her chair, frowning at Abby's grin. "Why are you happy?"

"Because Tony's the father." Her grin widened as Ziva groaned.

"That was not fair." She looked at her friend.

"I'm sorry, I just…this is so exciting Ziva, and you don't seem excited." She placed her hand on Ziva's shoulder.

"You would be a very good interrogator. People just tell you things."

"It is both a blessing and a curse." She grinned again. "When did it happen?"

"The first time?" Ziva grinned at the colourful Goth.

"It happened more than once?" Abby gave her an incredulous look.

"A lot more than once." Ziva laughed. "Venice." Her smile faltered slightly.

"Tony is a wonderful person."

"I know." Ziva nodded and smiled.

"I wasn't finished."

"Sorry." She indicated for the Goth to continue.

"Don't apologise, it's a sign of weakness."

"Abby…" Ziva groaned again.

"Okay. Tony is a wonderful person. I have known him for a long time and he is so understanding." She grinned. "There is a very warm heart hidden behind all his jokes."

"I know."

"I know you know. I am just reminding you." She grinned, jumping up. "Now I must go and look at carpet fibres!" Ziva shook her head at her friends enthusiasm and stood up, walking through to the squad-room.


	9. Chapter IX

IX. A Person Worries About the Past, is Upset About the Present, and Fears the Future.

"McGee's on babysitting duties tonight?" Tony asked as they started eating the bolognaise Ziva had cooked.

"Yes." She smiled.

"Hey, you ok?" He frowned, covering her hand with his.

"What do you think about children, Tony?" She pushed her pasta around on her plate with her fork.

"I never know how to talk to them." He shrugged.

"Do you ever want children?"

"I don't know, maybe when I'm older, more mature." He looked at her and frowned. "What's with all the questions?" She sat silently for some time before looking at him.

"I am pregnant, Tony." She sighed, watching him as he processed the bomb she had dropped.

"Well, that's…that's great." He nodded and smiled. "Really." He stood up and walked over to her.

"You are ok with this?" She smiled as he pulled her into a hug, kissing the top of her head.

"Of course." He swallowed, hiding his face in her hair. She buried her head in his shirt, ignoring the uneasiness she felt. Maybe there were better ways to tell him. All she wanted was for him to look happy, was that so much to ask? Who was she kidding, it was Tony, he was probably just as nervous as she was, that was why he didn't look happy. He was happy, just the nerves were more powerful.

* * *

Tony eased himself out of bed, careful not to wake the woman sleeping beside him. He had watched her sleep, thinking about children. His watch said 0045. Gibbs would still be working on his boat. He slipped his jeans on along with a sweater and crept out of Ziva's apartment as quietly as possible.

"It's polite to knock." Gibbs said as Tony walked down the steps into the basement.

"You never, boss." He shrugged, pulling a bench up and sitting.

"You want something, DiNozzo?"

"I… Me and Ziva broke rule twelve." He sighed.

"I know." He shrugged, emptying out two glass jars and pouring bourbon into them.

"Yeah, well, boss we were being careful…wait, how'd you know?"

"Not difficult to work it out."

"Why didn't you say something when you did?" He asked, taking the glass.

"What, in front of McGee and the director over a video call? I may be many things, but I am not indiscrete."

"Right, well we were being careful, or at least I thought we were, but apparently we weren't, 'cos…"

"She's pregnant? Yeah, DiNozzo, I know."

"Ok, how do you know that?" He laughed.

"I walked in on Abby running Ziva's blood." Jethro smiled.

"I don't know what to do, boss." The Italian sighed. "And I know you're going to yell at me for dating a co-worker and all, but I just want your advice."

"I got nothing to yell at you at all." Gibbs shrugged.

"You don't? Aren't you pissed that we broke your rules?"

"Well yeah, DiNozzo, but they aren't official agency rules. I can't do anything about it."

"What would you do about it if you could?" Tony frowned.

"I don't think I would. I'd give you grief about it, still might, but you and Ziva are two of the best agents I have ever worked with."

"Ziva's not technically an agent, she's an officer of Mossad."

"I know that, DiNozzo! I'm trying to pay you a complement here." Gibbs shook his head.

"Sorry, boss." He looked at Gibbs glare. "Not apologising boss, just, uh…talking to my self. You can continue, boss."

"You are two of the best I have ever worked with, I don't want to do anything to ruin that." He shrugged.

"But what if _I've_ done something to ruin that?" Tony stood up and leaned against the boat.

"What did you say, Tony?"

"Nothing. But I just… I was stunned. I mean, I'm me, I'm not exactly the father type!"

"Yeah, you are, you just don't realise it." Gibbs smiled.

"So what do I do?" He asked.

"You figure it out."

"Well yeah, boss, but I came here for advice, not to be told to figure it out on my own."

"No, you figure out that you're gonna be a good dad, DiNozzo." He shook his head in a classic Gibbs style.

"Oh, right. Yeah, of course." He nodded. "How do I do that?"

"Talk about it with Ziva, spend some time with Elsie and Mina, heck, watch kids films if it makes you feel better." He sighed. "I'm going to bed." He climbed up the stairs and hit the light switch, leaving Tony in the dark.

* * *

The room was dark. The bed was cold next to her when she sat up. He wasn't there. She felt her heart sink. She stood up and walked to the kitchen, pouring a glass of water. Pulling jogging bottoms and a sweatshirt on, she walked out of her apartment, leaving the glass of water on the side, and drove off. She arrived at the navy yard in record time, stormed down to the gym and started beating the metaphorical life out of a punching bag, barely waiting for the motion-sensor lights to flicker on.

She didn't know what time it was when she pulled a grey blanket from the locker that someone, probably Gibbs, had stockpiled with second hand military government issue woollen blankets and curled up on a mat in the corner of the room, falling asleep almost instantly.

* * *

He unlocked her apartment, stepping in and frowning at the light seeping from under the door to the bedroom. He pushed it open slightly, frowning at the empty bed and the rumpled covers. Ziva never left the bed unmade if she could help it. Nor did she leave the light on. He checked the rest of her home, finding nothing but a half empty glass of water. Turning his phone on, Tony scrolled through his contacts, hovering over Gibbs; he didn't want to disturb him again. He moved on to McGee, shaking his head and scrolling back up to Abby. Abby knew and was possibly the first person Ziva would go to for advise, on something like this anyway.

"Abby Sciuto, what is your forensics emergency?" She answered on the third ring.

"Abby, Ziva isn't with you, is she?" He asked.

"No, Tony, why would she be at my place?"

"Because she isn't at her place. Wait, what are you doing awake, it's like 2 am?"

"Well you called me and I woke up and answered my phone." She said.

"Abby, do you drink Caf-Pows in your sleep or something, you sound more awake than I do when I'm awake."

"Tony, where is Ziva?" Abby asked.

"That's why I am calling you. I went to Gibbs to talk to him, and when I got back she wasn't here and it looks like she left in a hurry and I don't know why…"

"Tony, breath. Can you think of any reason to think why she would leave?"

"I don't know Abby, can you?"

"I don't know what you could be talking about."

"I know she's pregnant and I know you know." He said, sitting on the sofa.

"Oh. Well I don't know why that would make her leave. Wait, did you say something that you shouldn't have. Or you didn't say something that you should have?" He could hear the disapproval in her voice.

"I don't know, I was stunned. Look, I've been through this with Gibbs already tonight, I just need you to tell me where she might be."

"Try Gibbs."

"Abby, I don't want to bother Gibbs." He sighed. "Again."

"How about McGee?"

"I doubt it." Tony sighed. "I guess I could try."

"You are happy about this, aren't you?" Abby said.

"Happy about having to call McGee at two in the morning? No." Tony said.

"Tony, that's not what I mean." She said. She was worried about her friends. What if it didn't work. What if something went wrong. She didn't want anything to hurt them. They were her friends.

"Of course I am happy about this Abs." He laughed, not sure that his voice sounded as confident as he wanted it to.

"Tony, don't screw this up." She said quietly.

"I won't, Abby. That's a promise, alright?"

"Mmhm. Goodnight, Tony."

"Night, Abby." He hung up his phone and closed his eyes. Abby was right. He couldn't mess this up.

He was so tired.

Coffee.

He needed Coffee.

He needed to stay awake.

He stood up and made his way to her kitchen. He started the coffee machine. Caffeine.

He allowed the smell of coffee to envelope him. He held the steaming mug in his hand and drank the hot liquid, waiting for the caffeine to kick in. Halfway through the mug he placed it down, picked his phone up and dialled Tim's number, waiting for him to pick up. "Probielicious."

"Tony, what do you want." He sighed.

"Is Ziva there with you?"

"No, why? Did you two have an argument?" McGee asked. He was tired. He had lost count of how many times Mina had woken, how many bad dreams Elsie had had. He didn't understand how parents could do it.

"You could say that. Do you know where she is?"

"No, Tony. I don't, I'm sorry."

"That's fine, Tim. Sorry for disturbing you." He sighed, switching his phone off. He yawned. When was the last time he slept? He hadn't slept in two days. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, not resisting sleep as it engulfed his mind.


	10. Chapter X

X. Time is the Best Counsellor.

"I heard you were down here." Gibbs said, sitting down next to Ziva. "Tony is looking for you. Done all but put out a BOLO for you."

"He was not there. When I woke up he was gone." She sat up, leaning against the brick wall next to her boss. There was a slight hum in the room as people went about their daily routines.

"He came to talk to me." Gibbs shrugged. "You find it comfortable sleeping here?" He frowned.

"Not particularly. I just did not want to have to drive home."

"Fair enough." He shrugged again.

"Why did he go to talk to you?" She swallowed.

"He wanted to know that he had gotten it right."

"Gotten what right?" Ziva frowned.

"His response. He was afraid that he didn't say what he needed to say when you told him you were pregnant."

"What did you say?"

"I told him to go and talk to you about it. He's not exactly experienced in this sort of thing." He paused. "He cares for you. A lot."

"I know."

"I don't think you do, Ziva." Gibbs said. "You came here last night because he had disappeared and you assumed that he had left you. He wouldn't do that to you." She let the tears roll down her cheeks. She had been hasty in her assumptions last night, she would admit. "Hey, come here." Gibbs wrapped and arm around her shoulders and hugged. "Congratulations." He whispered in her ear. "Now, you need to keep this a secret. As soon as Jenny finds out you will be taken out of the field, which although I can agree with, I don't want you out of the field just yet. That means that the only people to know are the people who need to know, ok?" He said, looking at her face as she nodded. "Now, dry your eyes else people will start thinking that you are growing soft." He laughed.

"But I am soft, Gibbs. I am allowed to cry." She said. "I am not a cold hearted killer."

"I know that." He chuckled. "But they don't." He nodded to the people who hadn't yet noticed Ziva's emotional state and Gibbs hugging her. "Much like my arm around you would make them all presume that I am growing kind in my old age."

"But you are kind." She shrugged, receiving one of his trademarked head slaps and grinning.

"You ever say that again and I will put you on desk duty myself." He pointed at her as he stood up. "Go on. DiNozzo is waiting, and we all know how impatient he can get. You realise that nine months is going to be hell to be around him?" He held out his hand to help her stand up, smiling when she ignored it.

"You only have to be around him during work." She laughed. "I get it twenty-four seven."

* * *

"Hey." Tony said, turning around from where Ducky was showing him X-rays as Ziva walked through the doors to autopsy.

"Ducky, could Tony and I have a second?" She asked, smiling sweetly.

"Of course, I will just, uh, take these reports up to Jethro." He nodded, holding up files as he wandered off.

"How do you get him to do that? Whenever I ask something like that he digresses into tales about how it only took a second for his first professor to be fired after inappropriate contact with a student." Ziva raised her eyebrows. "Don't even ask." He shook his head.

"I just smile."

"Yeah, that generally makes it worse for me." He gave her a crazy grin and she laughed.

"No wonder." She smiled. "Gibbs said you wanted to talk to me."

"I wanted to explain that I didn't know what to say when you told me about the baby and you know, I was stunned." He paused and thought. "I haven't had time to plan a brilliant speech, but, if I had, it would have gone something along the lines of this; Ziva David, I will do anything for you if it makes you happy, your happiness is all that I care for, along with you yourself, of course, (and not getting on the wrong side of Gibbs)." He added the last bit as an aside, making Ziva laugh. "I love you, more than I have loved anything or anyone in my entire life, which, as you know, is a very big deal, and so, with this in mind, along with the fact that I will do everything in my power to be a better father than my own, I will be there for you and our baby until the day I die, and even then I will be by your side for all that my ghostly power will allow." He smiled. "There are still some creases I need to iron out, but that is pretty much how the speech would go had I had more warning."

"I liked it just as it was. It was very…DiNozzo." She grinned.

"Well, I do my best." He grinned proudly.

"Yes, you do." She leaned up and kissed him.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I'm comfortable kissing you whilst being watched." Tony pulled away from her and pointed to a jar with an eyeball floating in it that sat next to a body laying on a slap. "I just…don't think it's…right." He said, grabbing her hand and running out of autopsy and into the elevator. "Much better." He grinned as she hit the button.


	11. Chapter XI

**I did want to upload the chapter set on Christmas actually on Christmas, but it is chapter 24 and we are on 11 already, so I shall have to rethink the Christmas present for you all. I do have another idea that might work.**

XI. Never Mind Storms and Snows for the Sake of a Friend.

"Ziva, I haven't seen you recently." Jenny smiled as she walked into the bathroom.

"I have been working hard." The Mossad officer smiled, drying her hands.

"If I didn't know you better, I would say you were avoiding me." Jenny narrowed her eyes and leaning against the main door, blocking Ziva's exit.

"I can assure you that it has not been intentional." Ziva nodded. She felt her chest tighten slightly as the director raised her eyebrows.

"The case you have been working, with the two young girls, Gibbs said you seemed to form a connection with them?"

"Yes, you might say that." Ziva frowned, leaning against the counter with the basins in.

"You haven't worked with children much, have you Ziva? This is new territory for you." The redhead smiled. "Have you ever thought of settling down, having children of your own?"

"When I was young, before I realised the reality of the world, I dreamed of marrying and having children. How about you?" She bluffed and made her expression match that of her boss's boss.

"My naïve mind did think about it once or twice, but it would never have worked. I'm married to my work." She laughed. "Have you spoken to your father recently, Ziva?" She changed the subject quickly before Ziva could formulate a reply to her earlier comment.

"Not in a couple of months. I believe he still disapproves of my being here."

"You are an asset to this agency, officer David." Jenny smiled, walking away from the door and clearing Ziva's path. "Keep up the good work."

* * *

"Why do you light those candles?" Elsie asked as Ziva lit the second candle.

"Because I celebrate Hanukah, not Christmas." She smiled.

"You don't have Christmas?" She looked up at her, frowning.

"No, but I have my own traditions." Ziva picked the child up.

"So you don't get to decorate the tree?"

"No." She chuckled.

"But that's the best part."

"I agree." Gibbs said from behind them.

"What does your tree look like?" Elsie asked as Ziva carried her into the living room.

"Gibbs always decorates the tree at work." Tony said, frowning when the two adults turned to look at him. "What? I thought everyone knew."

"I did not know." Ziva looked between her boss and Tony.

"Well who did you think decorates it? The elves?" The Italian laughed.

"It was just always decorated." She frowned. "You are very good at decorating." She turned to Gibbs.

"Used to be a Christmas tradition, decorating the tree at home." He sighed, shaking his head.

* * *

"Gibbs, that whole secrecy thing…" Ziva started as she stirred the tomato sauce she was cooking.

"Who did Abby tell now?" He sighed. He had warned Abby to keep her mouth shut, to stop herself from just blurting out things without thinking.

"Nobody. That I am aware of," She paused. "The only people who should know are you, Tony, Ducky and Abby. McGee does not even know. Anyway, the director came and spoke to me today. It was weird, like she was angel-ing."

"Angling." Gibbs laughed quietly, "An angel is something with a halo and wings, angling is what you do to catch fish. We generally call it fishing."

"Well, what ever she was doing, it was like she already knew." Ziva shook her head.

"Why was it that you went to Ducky in the first place?" He tested a piece of pasta and turned the stove off.

"Because I thought I might be pregnant." She said. "You know that."

"What I meant, was that you noticed changes in your body. I reckon Jenny probably noticed that as well." He shrugged as he drained the pasta and poured it into a bowl, placing it in the centre of the table.

"She is very observant, I know." Ziva smiled, remembering moments from Cairo. She sat the bowl of sauce next to that of the lumache pasta.

"Hey, dinner's ready." Gibbs said, scooping up Elsie as she ran past, running away from DiNozzo as he chased her around the table. She laughed in his arms, even more when he started flying her about like a rocket ship.

"You were supposed to be keeping her quiet. Mina is sleeping." Ziva placed her hand on his chest, stopping him from moving to sit at the table.

"Right now it's Gibbs making her laugh." Tony pointed out meekly, smiling slightly. She sighed.

"Gibbs, the pasta is getting cold." She stood in front of him, a stern look on her face and a smirk on his. He carried the elder child over to the table and placed her in the chair between to his and DiNozzo's.

"I love Italian!" Tony grinned, placing spoonfulls of pasta on his plate. There was silence around him as he felt everybody's stares on him. "Ladies first, huh?" He grinned, placing pasta onto Elsie's plate and passing the bowl over to Ziva.

"Thank you, Tony." She smiled as he drizzled tomato sauce over his and Elsie's plates.

"Well, this looks delicious." Gibbs smiled.

"Gibbs, you cooked it!" The little girl burst out laughing. "You can't say that your own food looks good."

"She has a point, boss." Tony shook his head in disappointment.

"You happy working at NCIS Tony? Fornell made a comment about agent Sacks needing a new partner over at the FBI." Gibbs looked at him.

"You wouldn't!" DiNozzo laughed and shook his head. "You would." His face fell.

"Nah, you're to special DiNozzo. Where else am I going to find someone who can flirt his way into almost anywhere if the obstruction is naïve enough?"

"Yeah, thanks boss. You have summed my character up perfectly." Tony muttered sarcastically.

"I am sure Ziva won't tolerate that anymore, will you?" Gibbs grinned.

"Oh, I do not know, Gibbs. It is very entertaining watching Tony work his magic." She wiggled her fingers, "Although I do not think I am too comfortable with it."

"Well, in that case I'll just have to find someone to replace him." He shrugged to Ziva, who grinned, sticking her tongue out when Tony scowled at her.

"This is abuse." He said, eating his pasta to hide his smile.

"You would feel unappreciated without it," Ziva shrugged, covering his hand with her own, "Mon petit pois."

"How is calling me 'your little pea' a term of endearment?" He asked as he turned Elsie's plate around so she could reach the pasta on the other side.

"It's French, DiNozzo." Gibbs said, between mouthfuls of food.

"Yeah, boss, I got that." He sighed.

"Well ask a French man then."

"All the French people I know hate me."

"Whose fault is that?" Ziva asked, finishing her meal.

"Well…I guess mostly mine." He frowned. "Would you like me to take your plate?" He asked her, not waiting for her answer as he stacked it on top of his own. "Gibbs?" He placed his boss's dish on the top of his pile and, picking up Elsie's as well, he took them to the kitchen, were he actually washed them up.

"You're having a good effect on him." Jethro whispered into Ziva's ear as he stood up and walked past her, nodding to Tony at the sink. "I have never seen him even use a dishwasher. I didn't think he knew what washing up liquid was."

"I am surprised you do, Gibbs!" she laughed.

"I've had four wives, Ziva. I got moaned at for neglecting the washing up more times than you can imagine."

"Fair enough." She laughed again, standing up. "Pyjama time?" She asked the child as she yawned and nodded. "Come on then." She picked her up and carried her through to the bedroom, smiling as Mina started wailing and she heard a game of rock paper scissors between her two colleagues.

"Hey, what's up, little one?" Tony leaned into the crib. He picked up the wailing infant, stroking her cheek and rocking her from side to side. He looked at the clock on the wall. "Hey, boss, did you say she'd had her bath yet?" He asked as Gibbs zipped his jacket up and slung his back over his shoulder.

"Yeah. She should be due a feed in quarter of an hour." He smiled, looking out the window and groaning.

"What's wrong?" Ziva asked, walking through with Elsie in mint green pyjamas.

"It's started snowing." He rubbed his forehead. "You two are stocked up with food in here, aren't you?"

"Yes, I brought more on my way over here." Ziva nodded.

"The road leading up here is pretty tight, not great for poor weather conditions. Whose idea was it to put a safe house this far away from civilisation anyway." Tony scoffed.

"Mine, DiNozzo!" Gibbs snapped, dreading his drive back and dreading Tony and Ziva's reactions in the morning when McGee didn't turn up for his shift.

"It was a great plan, accept for when it snows, boss." He recanted. Gibbs shook his head and crouched down to Elsie's height.

"Take care of them for me." He said, smiling when she saluted.

"On it, boss." She replicated Tony's words immaculately.

"Good. Sleep well." He smiled and stood up, looking at Ziva and Tony to convey the same message with fewer words. They both nodded and he walked out of the door into the flurry of white flakes that were falling at an increasingly rapid rate.


	12. Chapter XII

XII. Hope For a Miracle, But Don't Rely On It.

"I can't believe this!" Tony said, pulling the curtains to against the bright light reflected from the thick blanket of snow outside.

"McGee is unable to get here?" Ziva raised her eyebrows.

"Even I don't want to try and drive in that. I doubt McGee will step near his car." He scoffed. "Looks like we're stuck here."

"Do the girls have winter clothing with them?" Ziva asked, checking on the sleeping infant.

"I think Elsie might have a coat. What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that they have been stuck in here for four days and probably want some fresh air. I know I do." She sighed. "I hate being on protection detail."

"Too dangerous." Tony sighed, knowing exactly what she meant. He looked at his watch. 0600. He stretched his arms and rolled his neck, groaning. "Anyway, she only has one coat. If it gets wet and we have to move, she won't have anything to keep her warm." He kissed Ziva's head as she walked into his arms, tilting her chin up with two fingers to kiss her properly. "You're restless."

"Yes." She leaned her head against his chest. "I do not like being trapped."

"You're not trapped." He chuckled quietly.

"Really? We cannot leave!" She pointed to the door. "We are not allowed to open the windows! Tony, this is the definition of trapped!"

"Ok, so maybe we are trapped. At least we're trapped together." He smiled, trying to placate her by stroking her hair. "At least there's no imminent danger, not like the last time we were trapped."

"On the Chimera?"

"No, I was actually thinking about the time in that freezing cold metal box you got us locked in, but the boat is a close second."

"The container? Yes, that was…eventful." She sniffed.

"You never did tell me how you got those carpet burns." Tony shrugged, kissing her nose and walking over to the fridge, taking out the bottle of milk and pouring himself a glass.

"You still want to know, Tony?" She smiled, standing behind him.

"Mmmn, I think I'm good. I don't need to know." He shrugged.

"Suit yourself." She grinned, tapping his cheek and walking over to the couch where she sat down and picked up the book that Tony had read to Elsie the night before. "I do not understand why children's books are such nonsense. Caterpillars do not eat cake."

"Nor do they talk." He shrugged. "It teaches children about life and morals and how to read and how to speak properly." He paused and looked at her, his face lighting up. "I know how you can get better at English!" He grinned. "Children's books. It's how kids learn to speak so I don't see why it won't work for you." He explained sitting down next to her.

"Because it is not the Basic English that I have problems with, it is the sayings that I have issues with."

"I disagree, there are many times that you have made mistakes with basic linguistic techniques." He said, grinning.

"You enjoy making fun of how I talk, do you not?"

He bit his lip, trying to come up with a decent reply and landing on "No."

"Yes you do." She shrugged as he sat next to her.

"You would be upset if I didn't. Much like Gibbs slapping the backs of our heads, it is an expression of affection." He grinned charmingly at her scowl.

"You can talk your way out of anything." She shook her head and laughed.

"It's a gift." He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. "You need to think about booking a doctor's appointment." He smiled, placing a hand on her stomach.

"I would like to finish this case, first." She placed her hand over the top of his, their fingers locking together.

"Gibbs says that we should keep the baby a secret for as long as possible."

"Yes, he told me. I fear Abby will be our biggest problem in that respect." They both chuckled. "She is very excited about it."

"You think she'd be this excited if she was pregnant?" Tony asked, frowning.

"I do not know. I think she uses excitement to mask her fear."

"Or she's just very excitable." Tony laughed. "The happiest Goth you will ever meet." Just then the door to the bedroom opened and Elsie padded through, rubbing her eyes and climbing onto the sofa in between her two protectors, nestling into the gap.

"Good morning." Ziva smiled as the little girl tilted her head back and giggled, her short hair messy and sticky-upy. "Did you sleep well?"

"Mmhm. It's cold in here." She shivered dramatically.

"It'll be a cold day today." Tony said, pulling the blanket from the arm of the chair and wrapped it around the child.

"I'm not allowed to play in the snow, am I?" She sighed.

"Sorry." Ziva shook her head. Elsie sighed.

"It will snow again next year." She shrugged and stood up on the couch, climbing over Tony's legs and leaning over the arm to look into the travel cot to watch her sister sleep. "Can we build a fort instead then?" She turned and looked at the couple.

"I like that idea." Ziva grinned.

"Can we have breakfast first?" Tony asked, his stomach growling. "I think Gibbs left some porridge here yesterday."

Elsie and Ziva both rolled their eyes. "Why are you always hungry?" She asked, grinning.

"Well, because big boys are always hungry!" Tony laughed as he picked her up and carried her to the kitchen area. "What do you want on your porridge?"

"Honey, please." She grinned as he sat her on the countertop.

"Ziva?"

"Banana." She smiled, pealing a banana and slicing it. "Do we know when somebody will be able to get here to take over?"

"It's still snowing." Tony sighed, passing a tub of baby formula over to Ziva as she handed the honey and the bowl of sliced banana to him. "I doubt anyone in their right mind would drive the road up to this place."

"So it will be a while." She scoffed and shook her head.

* * *

"McGee!" Abby hugged her best friend as he walked into her lab.

"Whoa! Abby, why are you so happy?" He laughed, unwrapping her arms from around his neck when he started to lack oxygen.

"It's a good day." She bounced.

"Not for Tony. He's stuck at the safe house." Tim shook his head. It had taken him three times as long as it normally does for him to get into work. There was no way he would have been able to drive up to the bungalow.

"I think even Tony will be happy today." Abby grinned.

"Yeah, I'm not to sure." He frowned at her.

"He will, I know it." She was beginning to scare him. She was up to something.

"Hey, Abby, have you seen Ziva?" He asked as she walked over to her computers.

"Yeah, she's with Ton…" She covered her mouth, turning back to McGee.

"I know about Tony and Ziva, Abby." He laughed. If that was all she was happy about then there was no need for him to worry.

"Oh, thank God." She breathed. "I have been wanting to talk to someone about it but Gibbs and Ducky refuse. Why didn't you tell me you knew?"

"Because I was sworn to secrecy. And anyway, it's Tony and Ziva, I doubt it is going to last." He shrugged.

"But McGee, neither of them would do that to the poor little baby! They're going to be parents. That means something to even them!" She said expressively, trying to get through to Tim.

"Wait. Back up, rewind, reverse… What?"

"Ah. You didn't know that part." Her eyes widened.

"Wait, Ziva's pregnant?" He said, frowning.

"No…" She shook her head, not even convincing herself with the lie.

"How come you know?"

"Know what?" She smiled innocently.

"Abby." He exhaled.

"Look, they can't know that you know, and if they do know that you know they can't know that you know because I told you. Okay?" She pleaded with him.

"I'm confused." He ran it through his head a few times.

"You can't tell anybody. I wasn't even allowed to tell you." She balled her fists up and furrowed her brow. "Gibbs is gonna know that I told you."

"Yeah, Abs."

"Gibbs!" She pulled McGee in front of her, using him as a shield. "I didn't mean to tell him, I mean, I thought he knew…" She started backing away as Gibbs laughed.

"I'm not the one you have to worry about." He smiled. "Ziva."

"I…I…I'm dead…" Tim stuttered.

"Well, you have until they get back from the safe house to come up with an explanation." He smirked, handing a Caf-Pow to Abby. "Or to escape the country." He muttered under his breath, grinning as the younger agent's face fell. "The director is not to know." He grew serious.

"Er, why?"

"Because as soon as the director finds out and it becomes official, Ziva is put on desk duty."

"Of course, I understand boss. We would be less affective in the field without Ziva."

"No, McGee. It's gonna be hell working in the office with her whilst she's not allowed to do what she loves and we still can." He looked at him.

"I didn't like to say." He nodded and swallowed.

"Have either of you doo-dahed the thingy-majig on the lieutenant's computer?" Gibbs asked, ignoring McGee's last comment.

"We're getting there. Gibbs, it's gonna take a while."

"The rest of his laptop and files are those of a technophobe. From the skills displayed in those, he wouldn't have been able to encrypt the file to the level that he did." McGee explained. "It doesn't make sense."

"No. None of it does. I have a dead navy lieutenant and his wife who nobody seems to know anything about and their two children who had their lives threatened. I can't find a single motive and I can't find a single suspect!" Gibbs yelled, walking out.

* * *

"Duck, what do you got?" Jethro asked as he walked into autopsy.

"Nothing more than in the Autopsy report performed by the last ME, Jethro. Lieutenant Carlin died from a fall from a height of about 50 feet."

"Pushed? Poisoned?"

"No, Jethro. He fell. I can find no evidence to suggest foul play."

"Except his whole family is either dead or in our protective custody, Duck." The silver haired man sighed.

"I'll have Abby run more tox-screens, but I don't think we'll find anything. Maybe it was just a freak accident."

"Is that what you call being shot in the head?"

"No. I would agree with our expert in these matters and say that Mrs Carlin was killed by a professional." Ducky said sadly.

"And who would our expert be?" Gibbs smiled.

"Our dear officer David, who else?" He chuckled to himself.

"Don't know, Ducky." He laughed, walking over to the doors. "Oh, McGee is aware of 'our expert's' … condition, just so you know." He looked at the pathologist.

"We are still keeping this a secret from our higher powers, I presume?"

"Hit the nail on the head, Doc." He raised his disposable coffee cup and walked out.

* * *

"Are you excited for Christmas, Tony?" Elsie asked as the agent fixed the last blanket over the back of the sofa.

"Yeah! I love Christmas! How about you?" He grinned as he admired his creation.

"The best time of the year!" She laughed loudly, crawling out from the soft fortress.

"Shhh." He put his finger to his lips and picked the child up, pointing to Ziva, who was lying asleep on the floor with Mina asleep on her torso. "Ziva's very tired."

"Why?" She whispered quietly.

"Because she was awake all last night." He smiled, tapping her nose and placing her on the ground.

"Weren't you?" She asked.

"I got some sleep last night." He said. "Ziva said that she would stay awake and I could get the sleep." He smiled. "Are we going to put cushions and pillows in there?"

"Mmhm." She ran into the bedroom and came back with a pile of pillows in her arms. She wobbled and fell, landing in the sea of soft, padded cushions and stifling a giggle. He scooped her up, making her laugh more. "I'm hungry." She said in between chortles.

"Well, I think we have peanut butter. How about a PBJ sandwich?" He asked, carrying her over to the kitchenette and opened the fridge, removing the components when she nodded. He made two sandwiches, placing one plate in front of Elsie where she sat at the table and taking a bite out of the other one, watching Ziva sleep as he did so. Her hair was splayed across the lilac pillow that her head was resting on, with one hand next to her face and one on the infant's back. The child had her head turned and nestled under Ziva's chin, her tiny hands balled into fists. Her little body rose and fell gently with the rhythmic expansion and collapse of the Israeli's torso, the soft sounds of their breathing synchronised. It was like a snapshot from the future. The not too distant future – he reminded himself. ' _You don't have to joke about it, it's alright to admit you're scared.'_ Ziva's words echoed around his head. Except, he wasn't scared, not anymore. He would admit that the idea of having a kid had been rather daunting at first, but he had warmed to the idea. He smiled. He, Anthony DiNozzo, Junior, was going to be a father, and he would do anything it took to be a better father than his own.


	13. Chapter XIII

**Just as an aside, the chapter titles are all proverbs and quotes, some of which are directly or indirectly related to the chapter itself.**

XIII. Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go by any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material.

Tim sat down at the table opposite Abby. He nodded to the waiter as he brought over their usual meals and drinks. "Oh God." He sighed.

"What?" Abby grinned.

"Tony and Ziva are going to have a baby." He said fearfully.

"I know, it's so exciting!" She squealed.

"It's going to be the spawn of Satan." He looked at her, his brow furrowed.

"No, it's going to be the spawn of Tony and Ziva." She rolled her eyes at him.

"You're right." He laid his napkin across his lap. "It's going to be ten times worse."

"You're overreacting, McGee." She smiled and shook her head.

"Two wrongs don't make right, Abby. With just DNA that child will be bad enough, but being brought up by the two of them, I can't go near any surface that might have superglue on it."

"It is going to be the cutest baby ever, McGee." She grinned.

"I will agree with that." He laughed. "You think this will make Tony grow up?"

"Yes. He's going to have a baby, which is a huge responsibility."

"But it's Tony. He's more juvenile than a six year old." Tim argued.

"You don't think he'll grow up?" She frowned as she speared her fork into a piece of lettuce.

"No. He may act like it, but he won't."

* * *

"Boss, can't you send a helo out for us?" Tony begged down the phone.

"Nope."

"We're going stir-crazy in here." Tony hissed. "I don't know how long Ziva's gonna last."

"DiNozzo." Gibbs sighed. "There's nothing I can do. Apart from being bored, everything's alright?"

"Yeah. We're doing just fine." Tony groaned, nudging the curtain open and peeking out. "Are you getting anywhere with the case?"

"Abby and McGee don't think that the Lieutenant wrote the encrypted file on his computer."

"Well, do they know who did?" Tony asked, covering his face with his hand.

"They've gone to lunch." Gibbs said, and Tony could almost hear the shrug in his voice.

"They've… They've gone to lunch? They have gone to lunch whilst we are stuck in this cabin!"

"Tony, just keep the girls safe." Gibbs hung up and Tony resisted the urge to throw the phone across the room. Barely.

"I thought you said I have anger issues." Ziva chuckled from behind him as she wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed his cheek.

"You do." He turned around to face her. "I don't. I just don't like being in this cabin more. Your hair looks nice today." He tucked a strand behind her ear.

"I would say the same for yours, except it looks like a…"

"Porcupine?" He laughed.

"Yes." She nodded, looking at their entwined hands on his chest.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He tilted her chin up, frowning at her expression.

She inhaled and looked into his eyes. "Is this going to work, Tony?"

"I'm not sure I know what you mean?"

"You and me, Tony. And a baby." She sighed. "It is not exactly a recipe for a…a…what is the word I need?"

"I don't know, but I don't think I like it." He said, stroking her cheek. "I love you, Ziva, and you know that I don't take things like that lightly, not when I mean it." He held her chin to stop her from looking away. "I know this is big…"

"Tony, you and I know nothing about children. The only things in this world that I know about are guns and knives and torture techniques, and you are…well what do you know about serious relationships and raising a child, Tony?"

"Well, I know it's something that you have to work on together, and I know that we can get though anything if we try."

"I just… What if it does not work out? This is not something that we can just abandon when it goes wrong."

"Who says it's going to go wrong?" He looked at her seriously.

"Our track record, Tony. Neither of us have ever had a relationship that has actually worked out."

"Well, if either of us had had a relationship that worked out then we would never be having this baby, ok. This is a good thing. Please see that." His eyes pleaded with her as they stood together.

"Mina needs feeding." Ziva swallowed and turned away, leaving Tony to slide down the wall and sit on the floor by the window. He held his head in his hands, biting back tears. What had just happened? He had no idea. He felt a small presence beside him and he looked up to see Elsie sitting next to him.

"My daddy always said 'Worse happens at sea'." She patted his knee with her small hand.

"Your daddy sounds like a very wise man." Tony nodded.

"Why are you and Ziva fighting?" She asked.

"It's complicated." He snorted.

"Are you going to marry her?" She asked innocently.

"I don't know." He sighed and shook his head.

"But you said you love her."

"I do. But sometimes it's more complicated than love."

"I can't see how. If you love her then that should be enough." Elsie smiled.

"The world seems so much simpler through your eyes." He shook his head. "I wish it was enough."

"Then make it enough."

"I don't know how, Elsie. I don't think I can." He smiled sadly, stroking her hair.

* * *

"Why are you and Tony unhappy?" Elsie whispered to Ziva as she clambered out of the bath and into the towel that was being held out for her. Ziva wrapped the towel around the child's body, stunned by the question.

"What makes you think we are unhappy?"

"You're not talking to each other."

"You are very observant." She sighed.

"He loves you. Do you love him too?"

"Yes. But love is a very complicated thing." She buttoned up Elsie's pyjama top.

"Either you love him or you don't." She frowned.

"And I do."

"Then why aren't you happy?"

"Because sometimes love is not enough." She smiled. "Come on. Bed time." Elsie sighed dramatically and Ziva laughed, picking her up and carrying her through to the lounge.

"I'm not tired." She laughed.

"You will be in the morning if you don't go to bed." Tony ruffled her hair. "Do you want a story tonight?"

"No thank you." She yawned.

"That yawn tells me that you are exhausted." Tony laughed. "Who's gonna tuck you in tonight?"

She paused and looked between the two of them. "Both of you please." She grinned.

"I do not think that it is necessary for both of us to tuck you in." Ziva shook her head.

"Please?" She pouted.

"Ok." Tony tapped her nose. "Come on then." She hopped up from where she had sat on the sofa, slipping her hands into Tony and Ziva's.

"Sleep well." Ziva smiled, kissing the top of her head as she pulled the covers up to the child's chin.

"If you get cold, just come and find us, okay?" Tony sat on the edge of the bed. He held his hand out for a high five and grinned when she met his hand in mid air. "Go on, get some sleep."

"Night night." She smiled as they walked out of the room, flicking the light off.

"Ziva, we need to talk."

"Nothing to talk about." She replied, not looking at him.

"Yes, there is." He snapped.

"Elsie and Mina are asleep, do not shout." She said. "You can sleep if you want, I will stay awake."

"No, you were awake last night. It's my turn." He held a pillow and blanket out to her. "Anyway, you have a child growing inside you. You need to sleep."

"Tony, I…"

"Ziva." He cut her off. "Sleep. Please?" She took the bedding from him and laid it out on the sofa. "Thank you." He sat and watched her plait her hair and brush her teeth.

"Are you going to stare at me all night, Tony?" She asked, slipping under the blanket.

"If it keeps you safe." He shrugged.

"That is not the reason you are supposed to be awake. The reason that you are awake is to keep the girls safe." She said, turning away from him. She closed her eyes and exhaled, doing her best to fall asleep quickly.

Tony sat and watched her sleep, finding her rhythmic breathing calming.

* * *

"Boss, I have just gone through all the food we have here, and we are running low on supplies." Tony whispered into his phone, holding Mina in his arms.

"DiNozzo, there a reason that you're calling me at 0300?"

"Well, Mina woke up, so…"

"Tony, what supplies do you need?" Gibbs asked and Tony could hear something clatter.

"You're gonna send a helo out for us, boss?" He asked, excited.

"Something like that." Gibbs chuckled. Tony listed the rations that he needed and then frowned. "That all, DiNozzo?" He asked sarcastically.

"Er, yeah, boss. There a problem with that?"

"I'll see what I can do, Tony."


	14. Chapter XIV

XIV. Family is not an important thing. It is everything.

"McGee, Abs, shopping list." He handed them a block of wood with a list written on it. "Get it in quickly."

"What are these for, oh esteemed master?" Abby grinned, waving the block in the air.

"Tony and Ziva're low on supplies." Gibbs said.

"But, er, boss, how are we going to get it to them?" McGee frowned and stuttered.

"We're gonna go for a hike. Wear good boots, McGee." Gibbs left them and walked up to the director's office, ignoring Cynthia's protests as he pushed the door open.

"Ah, Agent Gibbs, how can I help you?" Jenny smiled, placing her pen down carefully.

"DiNozzo and David are out of supplies in the safe house."

"How are you planning on getting supplies to them?" She asked. "What do I need to sign off on?"

"Nothing. I was thinking since you seem to miss being in the field so much you would like to help. You still got your warm coat, Jen?"

"You want me to hike up to the safe house?"

"Need to take more supplies than me and McGee can carry." He shrugged. "We'll be leaving at 0800." He walked out. Jenny shook her head and rolled her eyes, unlocking the cupboard that she kept her walking gear in and sighing.

* * *

"Abs, what are you doing?" Gibbs asked as she walked into the squad room. She was bundled up in thick coats and what looked like four hats.

"I'm coming with you to see Tony and Ziva." She grinned.

"No, you're not, Abby." He shook his head.

"Why, Gibbs?" Her face fell. "I want to help!"

"You'll help by staying warm and safe here." Jenny smiled. "You're not a trained field agent."

"But you'll need all the help you can get! There are four backpacks and only three of you!" She argued her case.

"She has a point." McGee said. Gibbs sighed.

"Fine, but she's your responsibility." He pointed to McGee. "You won't need all those layers, Abs, one'll do fine." She grinned and bounced up and down, inhibited slightly by her hiking boots. "Oh, and Abby."

"Yes Gibbs?"

"No snowball fights. We're going out for a reason."

* * *

"Are you expecting something, Tony?" Ziva asked as he looked out of the window for the tenth time since she had woken up. It was the first thing she had said to him all day.

"Always expect things, then you won't be caught off guard when it happens. I'd have though that your Mossad ninja training would have taught you that."

"Yes, but I am less obvious about it." She said, looking up from where she was sat on the floor with Mina in her lap and Elsie next to her, building a tower out of wooden blocks.

"You spoken to your father?" Tony asked, walking over.

"No. Why are you so interested?" She asked, frowning.

"I want to meet him." Tony shrugged.

"You do not want to meet my father." She replied.

"Why not?"

"He would not approve of you." She shrugged and he looked at her, trying not to feel insulted.

"That 'cos I'm not Jewish?" He smiled, remembering their last conversation about her father.

"That, and I doubt he will like the fact that you got his only living daughter pregnant." She shrugged again, not noticing Elsie look up at her and then to Tony.

"Yeah, well, how do you know that's not what I wanted to talk to him about?"

"Um, the fact that I do not want him to know and will kill you if you try to talk to him at all."

"You realise that he will notice when you turn up to visit and all of a sudden you have a baby." Tony walked over to where they sat.

"Maybe I will not visit."

"What about if he visits you?"

"I will work out what to say when I need to say it." She ignored him as he sat next to her.

"Why do you refuse to talk to me about this? We're having a baby, Ziva. You can't just ignore that."

"I have not ignored that. I just think that there are better times to talk about this." She smiled at Mina as the child held up a blue brick from the top of the tower.

"When? In a month? In six months? A year? A decade?" He glared at her.

"Do not be ridiculous, Tony." She sighed. "We will talk about this after the scan." She sat quietly, playing with the two children. Tony frowned but let it slide, joining in with the tower building.

* * *

"Abby, save your energy. It's a long walk to the cabin." Tim groaned as she jumped around when they got out of the car. Gibbs had parked it in a layby just down the road from where the turning onto the track that led to the safe house.

"I have a Caf-Pow in this." She held up the drinking tube to a platypus that she had slipped into the large rucksack that Gibbs had strapped to her shoulders. "There's enough caffeine in here to sustain me for a month." The three others raised their eyebrows. "Well maybe not a month, or even a week, but there is a lot in there."

"We need to get going." Gibbs nodded, zipping Abby's coat up tighter for her and pulling her hat over her ears. They started walking, making quick progress.

"Did you do this in the Marines, Gibbs?" Abby asked after five minutes.

"Did things like this." He smiled, remembering his time in the core.

"Was it always so dull?" She asked and he chuckled.

"Never dull, Abby."

"Can we sing a song? Just to keep us going?" She asked, walking behind Gibbs and stepping in his footprints to make it easier.

"No, Abs." He said, shaking his head and laughing when she broke into a rendition of _frosty the snowman_. Why did he even bother?

* * *

"Shh." Ziva silenced Elsie, nodding to Tony to move the two girls into the bedroom. She un-holstered her gun and pressed her back against the wall, slowly unlocking the front door and easing it open, listening to the crunch of the snow as multiple feet trod the path up to the cabin. "Put your hands where I can see them!" She yelled as she caught sight of the first person as they rounded the corner.

"Ziva!" Abby squealed, running up to her and hugging her. "I feel like I haven't seen you in months!"

"Abby, I am struggling to breathe." She said, removing Abby's arms from around her neck. "What are you doing here?" She asked as Gibbs, Tim and the director walked over as well.

"Tony phoned last night and said you were low on supplies." Gibbs smiled.

"So this is what you were waiting for?" Ziva asked the man stood behind her with Mina in one arm and Elsie holding on to his free hand.

"Yeah, thought I asked for a helo?"

"Agent DiNozzo, where were you planning on having this helo land?" Jenny asked, looking around the clearing barely big enough for one car.

"Well, I hadn't exactly ironed out the plan." He shrugged. "Anyway, come in." he moved into the lounge.

"Wow, I think this is the longest a safe house has ever gone without it becoming covered in pizza boxes and takeaway cartons." McGee chuckled as he walked in.

"That's what comes from being stuck in a house with three girls." Tony laughed, stopping when he saw Ziva's face. "So, what did you bring us?"

"We got everything on the list." Abby grinned. "We got some pretty odd looks in the supermarket."

"Why?" Ziva frowned.

"Well, the boss wrote the shopping list on a piece of wood." Tim explained.

"Was all I had to hand, McGee." He looked at him.

"No, there's nothing wrong with that, boss, it's just, uh…" McGee stammered as everybody else hid smiles.

"Let me take that for you. It's heavy." Tony said to Ziva, removing one of the backpacks from her hands. She twisted his arm behind his back and pinned him to the table, ignoring the stares of everybody else.

"I can manage, Tony." She hissed into his ear. "I do not need you to help me. With anything!" She picked the bag up as she let go of his arm and walked into the kitchen area. Tony sighed and stood back up, walking over to where the two children were, Mina laying on the floor and Elsie sat playing with a toy car. He scooped Mina up and sat her on his lap, smiling at the gurgling sounds she was making.

"She's adorable." Abby sat next to him on the sofa, grinning at the infant. "What was that with Ziva?" She asked quietly, so the director couldn't hear her.

"We had a slight argument. And by slight I mean…I don't know what I mean… She suddenly said that she was worried it wasn't going to work between us and I tried to make it better but I made it worse…" He trailed off and shook his head.

"Tony, I'm sorry." Abby sighed.

"It's not your fault, Abs." He smiled slightly.

"Oh, we brought lunch with us." Abby grinned and jumped up. "We have ham and cucumber sandwiches that the director made." She pulled out a lunch box from one of the bags and placed it on the dinning-room table.

"And Cynthia baked a banana and chocolate cake that she said we could have." Jenny smiled from where she stood helping Ziva unpack the food.

"So when is lunch?" Tony asked.

"When the rest of the food has been put away." Gibbs said, mixing a bottle of baby formula up. There was very little space in the kitchenette with just one person in there, but with three it was beginning to become very crowded.

"We're done." The redhead breathed after a few very tense moments of silence, squeezing past Ziva and Gibbs and placing the box with the cake on the table. The bungalow was feeling rather cramped with the four agents, the director and Abby, along with the two children. They gathered around the table, Elsie sat on Gibbs' lap due to the lack of seating.

"Well, this is nice." Abby smiled, trying to break the tension.

"Yes, it is good to see other people after being stuck in here." Ziva said, increasing the tension again. There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone ate his or her sandwiches.

"So I can go home now?" Tony asked looking to Gibbs and the director as he finished his first sandwich and reached for another.

"Nope." Gibbs said.

"But boss?" His face fell.

"It's a long walk in deep snow. You don't have warm clothing." He said.

"Gibbs, I will be fine. I have walked further distances in colder weather." Ziva pleaded.

"No!" Gibbs, Tony, McGee and Abby cut her off.

"Why not?" She scowled at them all.

"You know why not, officer David." Gibbs warned.

"But I don't." The director said, looking around the table for answers.

"Do you not want Ziva to leave because she's going to have a baby?" Elsie asked Tony innocently, everyone turning to her. "Was that like the secret about you loving Ziva?"

"Yeah, sort of." Tony nodded.

"Well, this is very interesting." Jenny smiled, folding her hands on the table.

"Did you talk to her about this?" Ziva asked him, wrapping her hand around his wrist.

"Er, well, I did tell her that I love you but I never told her that you are pregnant, although I did think about it when you were carrying her around earlier." He said. "You're kinda hurting my wrist." She looked down at her hand and released it.

"Sorry." She said quietly.

"Why is it that I don't know anything about this?" Jenny asked, looking from Ziva to Tony to land on Gibbs.

"Because I wanted to stay in the field for as long as possible. I knew that you would take me out of the field when you found out, you might even have sent me back to Mossad." Ziva said guiltily.

"You could have just talked to me about it. If you didn't want to be taken out of the field, I could have made arrangements." Jenny looked at her. "And Ziva, I would never have sent you back to Mossad without a good reason."

"I should have told you director. I am sorry." She sighed.

"Hey, wait! Hold up a minute!" Tony frowned and pointed at McGee. "How did you know that Ziva's pregnant?"

"Er, uh, well… I sort of…um...Abby, little help here please?" He turned to her.

"I was wrong, McGee, maybe Ziva isn't the one you have to worry about." Gibbs smiled.

"I told him accidentally." Abby smiled. "I'm sorry. You're not angry, are you?" She asked and grinned.

"Could anyone ever be angry at you, Abby?" Ziva laughed. "It is not like you are Tony."

"Okay, it's been, like two years, can we drop that already?!" Tony flung his arms in the air.

"I don't think so." McGee grinned.

"Anyone for cake?" Abby laughed at Tony's glare.

"Not for me, thank you Abby." Ziva smiled.

"I'll take some." Tony grinned, passing his plate over to her.

* * *

"Ziva, why are you angry with Tony?" McGee asked as they washed the plates from lunch.

"Because I do not think it will work." She said.

"What won't work?"

"Me and him." She turned to him. "We are not going to be able to raise a child together. We can barely keep a relationship alive."

"Ziva, did you argue at all before you found out that you were pregnant?" He asked.

"No more than we did before Venice. Probably even less."

"Exactly. What you are going through puts strain on even the most secure of relationships."

"McGee, what do you know of this?" She asked, shaking her head. He paused and turned to her.

"Ziva, do you know why I wrote in my book that Officer Lisa and Agent Tommy were in love?"

"Revenge? Payback?"

"Well, that was partly it, but I could have just placed agent Tommy and Officer Lisa in multiple uncomfortable situations, but no, the reason I did that was because you two fit together. I've seen the way you look at one another when you don't think anyone's looking."

"McGee…"

"I see you two every day. I saw how…jealous you were when he was with Jeanne."

"I do not get jealous, McGee."

"Then what do you call it? Because it was most definitely jealousy." He shook his head. "Ziva, I have seen Tony get just the same when you have left with men who weren't him. You're going to have a baby, and that baby's going to need a mum and a dad. We all know that you and Tony will be amazing, loving parents, it's just you two who need to figure that out." He sighed.

"What if I am not ready?"

"Then, you have, what? Eight months to get ready?" He shrugged and pointed to Tony, Gibbs, the director and Abby who were playing with the two children. "Mina and Elsie are still alive, aren't they? You and Tony have done a wonderful job of looking after them so far, they are the proof that you are ready." He smiled as Tony picked the young child up and made her laugh. "Does that look like a bad father?"

"No, McGee." She smiled gently.

"So what's the problem? As far as I see you're just making excuses. Are you scared?"

"No. Why would I be scared?" She looked away.

"Because a baby changes your whole life. Every single little bit."

"Are you trying to make me feel worse, McGee?" She stared at him.

"What I'm trying to say is that yeah, it's daunting, but what you're getting out of it is so amazing that it'll all be worth it. Every parent gets scared, it's natural." He shrugged. "You have absolutely nothing to worry about."

"Thank you." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "Truly."

"I just want my friends to be happy." He nodded. "I'll finish up here, go on." He nodded, smiling. She pecked him on the cheek and walked over to Tony, sitting next to him and leaning her head on his shoulder. Tim smiled at the scene. They were his family. Not his biological family, of course he still had Sarah and the rest of his actually family, but the people he worked with day in and day out were closer than friends, they were his family too. He dried the last plate and placed it in the cupboard, walking over and joining them.


	15. Chapter XV

**I am sorry.**

XV. Children Are the Keys To Paradise.

"Bye-bye." Elsie waved to the four people as they started to make their trek back to the car. Ziva stood behind her holding Mina and Tony stood next to her. As Abby rounded the corner with one final wave they shuffled back indoors.

"They better solve this case soon." Tony muttered to himself. "I don't trust McGee to feed Kate."

"Tony, your goldfish will be fine." Ziva shook her head.

"You know what we should have asked for?" Tony looked at her. "Movies. Old movies."

"Well yes, Tony. The food is unimportant, what we really need is a whole load of loud films that will distract our attention and of course, you cannot forget the flat-screen television, Blu-ray player and surround sound system." She said sarcastically.

"I was going to recommend a standard DVD player, but you're right – Blu-ray is the best way to go." He replied, kissing her temple.

"It is a very good job I know you are joking." She shook her head again.

"Wait, you thought I was joking?" He said seriously and laughed. "Everybody says I have to grow up before this baby is born." He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and placed his chin on her shoulder, pulling faces at Mina in her arms.

"Do not grow up, Tony. No matter how many times you are told to." She sighed. "I love you just the way you are."

"I do believe, Ziva David, that is the first time you have ever told me that you love me." He grinned.

"I think it might just be the first time I have ever said it and meant it." She whispered, watching him out of the corner of her eye.

"I love you, too." He kissed her shoulder and released her waist, sitting on the floor next to where Elsie was drawing a picture. "Who's that?"

"The man who hurt my mummy." She looked up at him and then to Ziva. Tony picked it up and showed it to Ziva.

"That might just help with identification." She traced her finger along the scar that crossed across the man in the drawing's face, pulling the corner of his eye down. "Did anybody talk to you about what you saw, Elsie?" She sat down on the other side of the child, sitting Mina in her lap.

"No." She shook her head.

"Can you remember anything else about him?" Tony asked as he took a picture of the drawing with his phone and texted it to McGee.

"He drove away in a red car. It was funny, it only had two seats." She laughed.

"Did the car have a roof or no roof?" Tony asked, looking to Ziva.

"I think it had a roof, but it was black." She took another piece of paper and started drawing. "Like that." She showed him.

"Looks like a two-seater convertible, if the shape is reliable most likely a Porsche, possibly a Carrera." Tony said to Ziva. "This is really good." He smiled at the child and ruffled her short brown hair.

"Will this help?"

"Yes, very much." Ziva smiled. "I will get McGee to run a search for red two-seater convertibles, focusing on Porsches, in comparison to drivers license photos matching the drawing." She took her phone out and handed Mina to Tony.

"When you stop protecting us, who are we going to live with?" Elsie asked, looking up at Tony sadly.

"I don't know." He sighed. "Do you have any family?"

"There's Aunt Muriel in Canada." She said after a slight pause. "She always sends a Christmas card. She's really boring." She whispered the last part to Tony, who chuckled.

"You can't say that. How would you like it if Aunt Muriel said you were really boring?"

"She wouldn't. She's so dull that she would fall asleep from boredom before she got that far." She whispered. He smiled again.

"We'll sort something out." He smiled.

"Can we stay with you and Ziva?" She asked. Tony looked up as Ziva walked over.

"I do not think that is possible." She sighed and looked at the children sadly.

"Why?" Elsie asked, crawling over and sitting in her lap.

"Well, because we don't even have a house." Tony chuckled. "And I don't think we'll be allowed."

"What if you asked really nicely and said please?" She grinned.

"I still don't think it's possible, I'm sorry." Tony sighed as her face fell. "Probie get anything with the car?"

"He said he will call when he does." She smiled, stroking Elsie's short hair. "But they are not even back at the car yet."

"Well, they better get back soon, it's getting dark." He nodded out of the window.

"They are with Gibbs. They will be fine." She shrugged.

"Yeah, you're right."

"Of course." She laughed.

"Oh, really. That's very modest of you. You're setting a great example." They laughed.

* * *

"There's a lot we need to think about." Tony kissed the top of Ziva's head. They had put the girls to bed and were sat together on the sofa.

"Like what?" She asked, her head resting on his chest.

"Well, we're going to need to think about a house, to start with."

"Yes, but we still have time." She shrugged.

"You need to get a scan." He said.

"Another good point."

He paused. "What about marriage?"

"Are you asking me, Tony?" She frowned, sitting up and looking at him.

"No, because I would be doing it in a much more impressive manner than this." He grinned. "I just want to know your thoughts."

"It is not something I think about a lot." She shrugged. She looked at his eyes, the excitement in them. "Tony, you realised that around a third of pregnancies do not reach full term, I do not want you to get overly excited about this." She sighed.

"Yeah, but one third isn't a lot."

"It is, Tony, and the first trimester is the most uncertain."

Tony swallowed and frowned. "Why'd you know so much about this?"

"I read about it." She turned away from him.

"Ziva, please don't lie to me." He tilted her chin towards him. She wiped away the tear that trickled down her cheek.

"I was young, irresponsible." Her voice wavered. "Nobody even knew I was pregnant." The tears slipped down her face.

"I'm sorry, Ziva." He pulled her shaking form into his chest and held her. "I shouldn't have asked." He kissed the top of her head.

"You had a right to know." She whispered, her whole body shuddering with tears.

"You didn't tell anybody?" He asked, stroking her cheek.

"Not even my father." She swiped the salty tears away and looked at him. "I was 19, unmarried, it was a one night stand with a man I had been undercover with." She shrugged.

"You were in Mossad when you were 19?" Tony frowned, trying to distract her.

"I was in training from the age of twelve, Tony." She shrugged. "Joined Mossad officially when I was 18."

"Officially?"

"Well, I had done some…volunteering." She shrugged.

"Isn't that illegal?"

"My father is the director of Mossad. He can do anything he wants." She sighed. "Nobody wants to be on his dark side."

"Bad side. Dark side's where Darth Vader tried to persuade Luke Skywalker to move to." He smiled at her frown. "We're gonna watch Star Wars when we get back. We'll start with episode IV, watch them in the proper order."

"Why would starting with the forth be correct?" Her confusion deepened.

"Well, they made episode four, then five and six. Then, around 20 years later they decided to make three more episodes, from before, and they numbered them one, two and three, and numbered the original trilogy four, five and six."

"I'm confused."

"Don't worry, I was confused too at the time." He smiled and hugged her again. "I love you. More than you can ever know."

"I disagree with that." She said. "Because I think I might just love you more."

"This baby is gonna be the luckiest kid in the world." He smiled as he kissed her.

"And why is that?"

"Because you are gonna be a great mum. Boy or girl?"

"I do not mind." She traced spirals onto her stomach. "When I was a child I wanted one of each." She chuckled quietly. "But then I also wanted to become a ballerina and live in America."

"You have already got one of those wishes." Tony smiled, enjoying the snapshot into Ziva's childhood. "Although I can't imagine you as a ballerina."

"I was actually quite good." Ziva looked at him. "I lived in my own little world of fairy-tales until I realised the reality of life."

"You must have been a cute child." Tony smiled and shook his head slowly.

"I believe I was much like Elsie, although I had longer hair." She exhaled slowly. "I am sorry Tony."

"For what?" He frowned and looked at her.

"I have not been as…cheerful as you have." She rested her head on his chest, fiddling with his fingers.

"Well." He sighed and shook his head. "I don't think that's a fair assessment."

"I do. You have been so excited about the whole thing and I…"

"You are being calm and collected about it. It's understandable." He kissed the top of her head. "You're keeping me grounded."

"I believe that is a form of punishment."

"No. Well, yes, but I meant it in the sense that you're keeping me more down to earth."

"Can you not just say that then?"

"No. My way makes more sense." He flashed a grin. "It's late. You should sleep."

"No, Tony. I slept last night." She protested.

"We take it in turns. I'll wake you up after two hours, then you can wake me up after two hours, alright?" He smiled, not planning on waking her up until the morning. She looked exhausted and he could just make coffee if he felt himself falling asleep.

"I guess." She said warily, shifting to the other end of the sofa and curling up so her feet rested on Tony's lap. "Thank you, Tony."


	16. Chapter XVI

**This one is kind of choppy, I am sorry about that.**

XVI. In a Mad World Only the Mad Are Sane.

"I don't understand this." Abby glared at her monitor.

"What's wrong?" McGee looked up from his laptop screen.

"I have tried to decrypt this in every way known to man. I have run every program I can." She sighed. "It just doesn't make words."

"What do you mean?" He asked. He was tired, seeing as they hadn't left her lab since they had arrived back from delivering the supplies to the cabin the previous evening.

"I mean its jibber jabber McGee. There's not a single word that makes sense. In any language." She flung her arms up in the air. They both stood looking at the jumble of letters on the screen.

"Abby, what if this case wasn't about the file?" He looked at her.

"What d'ya mean, Elf-Lord?" Gibbs walked up behind him.

"Er, boss, what if the file was just a distraction? Who ever planted it knew that we would put all of our time and effort into finding out what was in it and not following other avenues of investigation." He said.

"Did you find any prints on the laptop, Abs?"

"No, but he had one of these cool mouse-mats that you place between the screen and the keyboard during transportation and it cleans it." She said, holding the offending article up with gloved hands.

"What about the outside? On the top and bottom surfaces."

"None." She frowned. "Which is odd because you would expect to find prints from when someone closed the lid."

"Someone wiped it clean." Gibbs said.

"So, what's the motive?" McGee asked.

"Don't know, McGee, why don't you find out." Gibbs pecked Abby on the cheek and walked out. "Good job."

* * *

"Cynthia, this is really important, I need to talk to Gibbs and I know he's in there." McGee said to the director's secretary.

"I can't do that, Agent McGee." She shook her head.

"Then I'm sorry." He knocked on the door and walked in, ignoring Cynthia's protests. "Boss, I've got something." He said, holding a folder.

"Go, McGee." He nodded from where he stood opposite Jenny.

"Five years ago, Lily Carlin filed for a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend, Elliot Grebe. Apparently he was claiming that Elsie was his daughter." McGee handed the file to Gibbs.

"Why didn't we find out about this earlier?" The director stood up from her desk chair.

"Because she used her maiden name so her husband wouldn't find out." He smiled. "Abby ran his DNA against a sample of Elsie's, not his daughter. Get this, he has been in and out of the psych ward over the past ten years after he attacked his mother's fiancé because he made his favourite pastry wrong."

"Let's pick 'im up." Gibbs shrugged.

* * *

"Elliot Grebe?" McGee asked as he and Gibbs walked into the public area of the mental hospital.

"No, Santa Claus. Who's asking?" The man said, turning away from the chess set to reveal a scar that ran down the whole left hand side of his face.

"NCIS." Gibbs said, flashing his badge at him.

"Never heard of you." He said, moving the white rook.

"Naval Criminal Investigative Service." McGee stood on the other side of him.

"What do you want?" Elliot moved a black knight.

"We want to talk about Lily. She's dead." Gibbs watched as he moved another white piece.

"She wouldn't let me see my kid." He muttered.

"Elsie isn't your daughter." Gibbs looked at him.

"She IS!" The man yelled, standing up and flipping the chequered board over.

"Sir, please calm down." Tim said, ducking to avoid contact between his face and Elliot's fist.

"Alright, come with us." Gibbs snapped a pair of handcuffs around the suspect's wrists. "Calm down."

* * *

"Jethro, I was reviewing x-rays of the Lieutenant's skull and noticed a remodelled fracture, I would say from about two weeks before he died, hidden by all the fractures from his fall. Something struck him hard."

"Ok, Duck, why's that important?"

"You wanted to know why he fell. I think that was the thing that caused him to fall."

"He fell due to a head wound from two weeks earlier?"

"It would just take a knock to cause bleeding to already damaged blood vessels in the brain."

"Thanks, Duck." Gibbs said as he walked into the interview room. "Hey!" He slammed the file down on the table. "Why'd you kill him?"

"Who?"

"Lieutenant Carlin."

"I didn't kill that fool." He laughed. "I just hit him about a bit."

"Yeah, and that head injury is what killed him!" He yelled.

"Well, I didn't mean to." He shrugged.

"Okay then, why did you kill Lily?"

"Who says I did?"

"We have a witness who can identify you."

"She was keeping my daughter from me." He shrugged. "She didn't deserve to be the mother of my child."

"So you killed her and planted the file on the computer? Why not take the girl?"

"She ran away before I could catch her."

"So you thought setting fire to the house she was in would make it better?" Gibbs looked at the man, disgusted. "That house was full of children, innocent children!"

"They wouldn't let me see her."

"She isn't your daughter."

"She is, you're wrong." He yelled. "You shouldn't be doubting me! Those people in the house doubted me, they said I couldn't see her."

"If you can't have her, no-one can." Gibbs glared.

"It worked, she's dead now." Elliot shrugged.

"Wrong! She's under my protection!" He slammed the door, leaving the man with the scar laughing.

"Nobody can say that he is in his right mind." Jenny said as Gibbs walked into the observation room. The killer had started to cackle loudly, the sound made more unnerving by the speakers in the room.

"Who would want to?" McGee stared at the disturbing scene in front of him.

"He confessed. We've got him." He sighed and shook his head, disgusted by the man before him.

"Bring them home, Jethro." The director smiled at him, nodding. "Good job."


	17. Chapter XVII

XVII. Orphans Are the Only Ones Who Get To Chose Their Parents, And They Love Them Twice As Much.

"Tony, what is that?" Ziva gasped as she jolted awake to the humming coming from outside the cabin.

"I don't know." He said as he wrapped Elsie in her coat and scarf. "We're going to be real quiet, ok?" He smiled at the child as the colour faded from her cheeks.

"It sounds like a helicopter, coming from behind us." Ziva whispered, bundling Mina up in blankets to keep her warm. She zipped her light jacket up and un-holstered her gun.

"Here." Tony handed her his coat.

"No, Tony. You only have your shirt." She shook her head.

"And you only have your jacket. Put it on." He said and she didn't argue with his stern tone. "Thank you."

"Where are we going?" Elsie asked quietly.

Ziva sighed and crouched down in front of her. "I do not know. But we have to be very quiet, and we have to stay together. We are all going to stay safe."

"I'm scared." The child whispered quietly, voicing what nobody else wanted to say, as Tony unlocked the door and took hold of Elsie's hand, carrying Mina in his other. Ziva stepped out in front of them and inched forwards, keeping to the side of the house where the snow was thinnest. The helicopter had stopped and there was silence as they crept as carefully as possible in the opposite direction, freezing when the crunch of footprints grew louder in approach. Mina began to whimper and Tony tried to quell the soft crying. He looked apologetically to Ziva as she crouched down to Elsie and hugged her tight. She looked back at him.

"I love you." Ziva whispered quietly as tears began to slip down her face. She had always though that she would die in some dank, dungeon like room being interrogated and tortured, not in such beautiful white snow, surrounded by the clean smell of fir trees and the bright sunlight.

"I love you, too." He whispered back. "I'm so sorry. I should have done a better job of keeping us safe." He crouched down next to her and wiped her tears away. She shook her head and closed her eyes. So this was it. This was the end.

"It is not your fault, Tony." She breathed, rocking backwards and forwards in a worthless effort to calm Elsie down as the child began to quiver, unable to tell whether it was due to the cold or the fear.

"Hey, DiNozzo! What do ya think you're doing?" Gibbs yelled from the other end of the cabin.

"Boss?" They looked up, grins spreading across their faces.

"There a reason you're all sat there crying?" He walked over, frowning.

"We thought that you were coming to kill us." Ziva chuckled shakily.

"Nope, just to take you home." He shrugged, holding his hand out to Ziva to help her up.

"Home?" DiNozzo's grin widened.

"Sure." He shrugged again, picking Elsie up.

"You brought us a helo?" Ziva laughed.

"Yeah, it's in the clearing round the back." Tony and Ziva breathed sighs of relief as they looked at each other. "Well what are you waiting for, go pack your things."

* * *

"Mmm, good to be back in the office." Tony smiled, kissing Ziva as he handed her a bottle of baby formula. She sat on the corner of her desk facing the centre of the squad room, holding Mina in her arms.

"DiNozzo, I liked it better when you two thought I didn't know." Gibbs said, handing him a cup of coffee.

"Gibbs, can I not have a cup of coffee?" Ziva asked.

"No." Tony and Gibbs both replied. Elsie ran up behind them and Gibbs picked her up, spinning her in the air.

"Hey, boss, who's that with the director?" Tony asked as the redhead stepped out of the elevator with an older, greying man.

"Don't know, DiNozzo." He murmured quietly, placing Elsie down as the two walked over to them.

"Agents Gibbs, DiNozzo." Jenny said, stopping.

"Ziva?" The man said, standing in the entrance to the squad area.

"Abba?" She turned around, staring at her father. Tony inched closer to her.

"This is Director of Mossad, Eli David." Jenny said, smiling.

"Tony DiNozzo, good to meet you." He stuck his hand out, wincing as Ziva twisted his other wrist back and scowled at him.

"Abba, what are you doing here?" She frowned, forgetting the child in her arms.

"You are not even going to try to explain?" He pointed to Mina.

"You first." She handed the infant to Tony, nodding slightly at him. He walked over to his desk and sat down, watching the confrontation discreetly from the corner of his eyes.

"I have a conference with your Sec-Nav." He smiled charmingly.

"We have been protecting them." Ziva nodded to the two children, meeting her end of the deal.

"You could have just said that."

"So could you." She shrugged, ignoring her father's smile. He nodded cautiously and walked over to Gibbs.

"So you are the man who has stolen my daughter?" He said light-heartedly.

"She's a good investigator." He smiled and shrugged.

"My secretary has prepared a pot of tea." Jenny said, flipping her phone shut. Both directors nodded and smiled as they walked up to her office. There was a quiet as everybody allowed the dust to settle. Then Ziva stood up from her perch on the corner of the desk and walked around to her chair, sitting down and placing her head in her hands. Gibbs shook his head at Tony as the younger agent began to stand up. He sat back down again, understanding Ziva's need for a moment to think.

* * *

"I love you." Tony smiled as he kissed her.

"So I have been told." She grinned and kissed him back. They stood in the corner behind the stairs to the balcony that overlooks the office area. It was surprisingly quiet for midday, Ziva thought as she ran her hand through his hair. "Where is everyone?" She asked as they broke apart.

"A lot of the schools 've been closed due to the snow, so the director sent all agents with children or those who live far away home." He explained quickly, going back to kiss her. He took the hairband out of her hair, allowing it to fall softly over her shoulders.

"What is your fascination with my hair?" She laughed quietly.

"I think it was the first thing I noticed about you when you first arrived here." He shrugged.

"I believe the first thing I noticed about you when I arrived was…" She laid her hands on his shoulders as he placed his on her hips. "That you were having phone sex with a co-worker."

"I wasn't, I was talking to a dead friend." He pouted.

"Of course." She grinned.

"It only happened the once." He tilted his head and frowned. "Possibly twice." She laughed and shook her head.

"I love you." She smiled, kissing him again and freezing when she heard a cough that she had heard many times as a child. They both looked up at Eli as he stood on the stairs, glaring at Tony. "We are dead." She whispered in his ear as they both turned to watch her father walk down the stairs towards them. Her hand found his and they stood side by side, hiding their clasped hands behind her back.

"Director David." Tony nodded, smiling.

"Agent DiNozzo." He did not smiled back.

"We're all going to be having dinner tonight, I'm sure you'll be welcome to join us." Tony said, ignoring Ziva as she kicked him in the shin.

"I do not want to intrude." Eli shrugged.

"Oh, I'm sure you won't be." The agent grinned, putting on his most charming face.

"Well, if you are sure." He shrugged again.

"Yeah, I'm sure you can be Jenny's plus one." Ziva turned to Tony and glared, looking at her father and smiling softly, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Er, social services is here, and there's a slight…problem." McGee rounded the corner, looking to the three people before him.

"What problem, McGee?" Ziva asked, moving forwards.

"Er, Elsie refuses to leave." He shook his head. "Gibbs thinks you might be able to handle the situation better."

Ziva nodded and followed McGee. "My Ziva, good with children?" Eli raised his eyes at Tony.

"You'd be surprised." Tony looked her father up and down and walked off in the same direction as his two colleagues.

"But what if I don't like them?" The child pouted as she sat sideways on Ziva's lap.

"I am sure you will." Ziva smiled, brushing the child's hair out of her eyes.

"But why can't I live with you and Tony?"

"We have been through this." Ziva chuckled. "Me and Tony do not have a spare bedroom."

"What if you bought a new house?" Elsie scowled.

"We cannot buy a new house at the moment. Anyway, we are not allowed to take you home with us." She sighed.

"Please?" The child begged, pleaded. Ziva looked up at Gibbs from the windowsill where they sat. She picked her up in her arms and carried her to her desk, placing her down in the chair and handing her a box of coloured crayons and a pad of paper. She nodded to Tony and they both walked over to Gibbs and the social worker.

"She wants to come home with us." Ziva stated.

"I can't allow that, neither of you are registered foster parents." The social worker spread her hands out.

"We know that." Tony looked at her. "Not only that, but neither of us have the room for two children."

"I do." Gibbs shrugged. They all turned to look at him. "And, I believe I'm still a registered foster parent."

"Why are you a registered foster parent, boss?" Tim frowned.

"A case, long time ago." He shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"You can't work and look after the two children." She shook her head. "Not allowed."

"Well, it'll only be for tonight until you can find a better home." He shrugged, waltzing over to the little girl at Ziva's desk. "Hey, how're you doing?"

"I don't want to go to another home." She mumbled.

"Well in that case you won't want to be coming home with me tonight." He shrugged and straightened up.

"No, wait." She looked up at him. "I'm allowed?"

"You and Mina can stay with me for one night." He said.

"Thank you, boss." She saluted and he grinned, tousling her hair.

"That mean dinner at yours tonight, boss?" McGee asked.

"Long as Ziva and Tony are cooking." He shrugged.


	18. Chapter XVIII

XVIII. To A Father Growing Old Nothing Is Dearer Than A Daughter.

"Ziva, how long until the rice needs to go on?" Tony asked and she checked her watch.

"Five minutes ago." She glared at him.

"Hey, not my fault I can't cook." He shrugged, putting the rice on to cook.

"It is your fault that you invited my father." Ziva hissed at him as Gibbs walked into his kitchen. He took the pan from her hand and stirred it.

"Go sit down, you're getting stressed." He raised his eyebrows.

"I am fine, Gibbs." She wiped her brow and began chopping vegetables.

"Ziva, Abby will be here any second, she can take over." Gibbs said quietly. "Go and rest." She sighed and walked through the archway into Gibbs' lounge where Elsie and Mina were sat on the floor. They were playing with a wooden boat, probably hand carved. She scooped the younger of the children up from where she was propped up against the armchair. The front door clicked open and Abby and Tim walked in laughing.

"I thought you were going to be cooking dinner?" McGee frowned.

"Gibbs said I was 'Too stressed'" She sighed. "I do not think I am stressed!"

"Okay." He raised his hands in surrender and backed away slowly. There was really no point in arguing.

"Hey, Abby, Gibbs want's you to help in the kitchen." Tony walked through.

"Okay dokay." She skipped away. Tony hugged Ziva and placed his finger in Mina's hand, smiling as her little fist gripped it.

"I'm sorry." He whispered in her ears.

"You have been saying that a lot." She smiled sadly. "Apologies are a sign of weakness."

"Not between friends." Ducky walked through the front door. "And especially not between lovers. Let that be advice for everybody."

"Thanks for the tip." McGee grinned as he laid the table.

"McGook, before you can apologise to a lover, you need a lover." Tony laughed.

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs yelled from the kitchen.

"Yes, boss?"

"Leave the Elf-lord alone."

"Er, thanks boss…I think…" Tim thought about the comment.

"Should we not knock?" Eli's voice drifted from outside as the door opened again.

"Jethro doesn't lock his front door." Jenny said, walking through.

"Dinner's ready!" Abby bounded through, stopping in her tracks when she saw the unfamiliar face. "Oh, were we bringing dates?"

"Abby, this is Mossad Director David." Jenny introduced her. "This is our forensic scientist Abby Sciuto."

"David as in Ziva David David?" She frowned, pointing between all the people in the room.

"Yes, Abby. My father." Ziva said plainly.

"Oh, you must be so excited about the baby!" She grinned. The whole house fell silent except for Mina's soft cooing. Ziva handed Mina to Gibbs and turned to Tony, allowing him to wrap his arms around her. "You didn't know about the baby…"

"Abby." Gibbs sighed.

"No, I did not." Eli looked at his daughter and walked towards her. "Is it true?"

Ziva turned to face him, Tony keeping his hands resting protectively on her shoulders. She sighed, looking everywhere but at her father as she tried to formulate an answer.

"Yes, I am pregnant. Yes, it is Tony's. Yes, it is going to be loved. No, I was not planning to tell you!" She yelled. "Tony, I want to go home." She said quietly.

"Ok." He smiled softly at her as she crouched down in front of Elsie.

"If you ever need me, even if just to talk, call me on one of those numbers." She handed the child a business card and ruffled her hair. "Good luck, Elsie. Look after your sister." She stood up and walked over to Gibbs. "Bye-bye, little one." She stroked Mina's cheek and grasped Tony's hand, pulling him towards the door.

"Night, boss." He said quietly and nodded, walking out with her. There was an awkward silence until Ducky took a breath.

"Abigail, you said dinner was ready?" The pathologist asked.

"Don't call me Abiga…" She drifted off as she looked around at the glaring faces. "Yeah, dinner's ready."

* * *

"I am so sorry about last night, Gibbs." Ziva said, standing at his desk.

"It's fine, Ziva. You were put in a difficult situation." He shrugged.

"How did the girls go this morning?"

"It was difficult." He paused. "Why weren't you planning on telling your father?"

"I do not want my child to grow up in his world. His is a world of violence and war and lies." She said.

"And you think he would allow that to taint his grandchild?" Gibbs asked.

"He let it 'taint' me." She swallowed. "I wanted to be a ballerina when I was a little girl, Gibbs." Her eyes pricked with tears.

"Yeah, and you would never have been the wonderful person you are now. You would be a different Ziva, one that never fell in love with Tony and never did all the things you have done, seen all the things you have seen." He smiled. "That's what makes you you."

"I do not know. I think that maybe I would be a better person if I had been different."

"The little girls that you spent a week caring for, they didn't want to leave you. They'd want to leave if you were a bad person, but they did."

"Do you script these motivational speeches out?" She laughed.

"Nah, I just got a lot of experience." He shrugged. "You planning on doing any work today?"

"On it, boss." She nodded and walked back to her desk. "Gibbs, will I be a good mother?" She asked quietly.

He sighed and shook his head. "Ziva, you shouldn't have to even ask that question."

"Thank you, boss." She nodded slightly.

* * *

"Fifty bucks it'll be a girl." McGee said, looking at Abby.

"No, I'm going boy." She shrugged.

"Really?" He looked at her.

"Yeah, just a feeling. What does your gut say, Gibbs?" She grinned as the boss-man walked into her lab.

"'Bout what, Abs?"

"What Ziva's gonna have."

"A baby, like you keep announcing to everybody." Gibbs sighed.

"No, boy or girl." McGee smiled.

"You're betting on my kid?" Tony walked into the lab.

"Er, no…" McGee shook his head slowly.

"Don't lie, McSneaky. I want in, it's gonna be a girl" DiNozzo grinned. "A little princess that no man is going near till she's thirty-even then he'll have to pass rigorous psych evaluations."

"Ziva know that you're making all these plans?" Abby asked, smiling.

"No, Ziva scared me pre-pregnancy, now…" He chuckled. "None of that leaves this room, and by that I mean you, Probie." He pointed at him. "What are everyone's bets so far?"

"You and McGee say girl, I say boy, Gibbs hasn't said." Abby grinned. "So what _do_ you think, Gibbs?"

"I'm not getting involved in this." He smiled.

"Oh, Gibbs, please?" She begged him.

"We don't have to write what you say down." McGee pointed to the spread-sheet that he was working on. It had a list of names in one column and their guess in the next.

"A lot of people going with girl." Gibbs raised his eyebrows.

"That might be wishful thinking. People are worried that if Tony has a son there will be another DiNozzo whom their daughters must be locked away from." McGee smirked.

"So, seeing as your gut is the most reliable fortune teller I know, what do you think?" Abby smiled sweetly.

"Don't got a gut feeling about this." He shrugged and walked out, placing a Caf-Pow in front of her.

Abby narrowed her eyes. "He so has a gut feeling about this."


	19. Chapter XIX

**I am sorry that I have not updated this in a while, I honestly had not realised how long it had been and I life has been rather hectic. So I apologise and I might even update 'Her Return' tonight if I can get it finished.**

XIX. Home Is Where the Heart Is.

"So, what did you put down for the sweepstake?" Ziva asked as Jenny walked past.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She smiled her most innocent 'director smile'.

"The bet over whether I will have a girl or a boy. I caught Abby going around and asking people yesterday." Ziva smiled.

"Boy." Jenny smiled then paused and frowned. "Does Abby know that you know?"

"No, I have found it rather amusing watching everybody's attempts at hiding it from me."

"You don't mind?"

"No." She shook her head and smiled. "I have taken part in many sweepstakes involving colleagues."

Jenny smiled. "Have you booked an appointment for your scan yet?"

"Next week." Ziva nodded. "I have already spoken to Gibbs about it and he said that it is fine." She looked down at the paperwork on her desk.

"Hey Jenny, how're you today?" Tony asked as he walked over and sat on the edge of Ziva's desk.

"I'm well, thank you agent DiNozzo." She nodded.

"We're going out." He picked Ziva's coat up and held it out for her to put on.

"Where?" Both women asked simultaneously.

"It's a surprize, can't say." He grinned.

"Tony…" She groaned. "I do not like surprizes."

"I think you'll like this one. Bring your bag, we're not coming back tonight." He said, collecting his things.

"Has Gibbs cleared this?" The director asked.

"Yeah." Tony shrugged.

"What is so important, Tony?" Ziva asked as he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the elevator.

"You'll see." He grinned.

* * *

"What are we doing here, Tony?" She asked as they stood in the snow. They had walked to a street about fifteen minutes from the navy yard. Trees lined the road, one every two brownstones.

"Come on." He took her hands and led her up the icy steps, preventing her from slipping. He hit the doorbell and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. The lock clicked and the door swung wide open.

"Tony!" The man at the door grinned.

"Al, it's been too long." DiNozzo hugged him and Ziva frowned, looking between the two men. "This is Ziva." He smiled and nodded to her.

"Ziva David." She held her hand out and he shook it.

"Alexander Larson, but you can call me Al." He smiled, a very similar smile to Tony's – charming. "Please, come in." He moved and Tony and Ziva stepped through the threshold.

"What are we doing here?" Ziva asked quietly.

"Patience, young one." He did his very best Obi Wan voice.

"This is my wife, Sandra." Al said as a blonde woman walked over. They had walked into an airy kitchen at the back of the house. Ziva surveyed her surroundings, smiling at the children's paintings on the fridge. A timer dinged and Sandra walked to the oven to remove a loaf of bread.

"Al went to Ohio State with me." Tony grinned.

"I used to think they were the best years of my life. I was wrong, these are now." He smiled and pointed to a canvas with an image of him, his wife and two young children.

"They are beautiful." Ziva nodded.

"Thank you." Sandra smiled. "You like to see the rest of the house?"

"Er, sure." She frowned, confused. "Tony?"

"Go ahead, I've already seen it." He pointed to the doorway and waited for the two women to walk out. "So you're really thinking about selling the place?"

"You really thinking about buying it?" Al smiled and Tony shook his head laughing.

"We need a house."

"Do I detect hidden motivations?" Tony's old friend handed him a mug of coffee.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You look happy. You're not scared that having a kid's gonna change your whole life?" He asked, sitting down on a barstool.

"Did I say anything about kids?"

"No-one buys a house without needing to." Al laughed. "When Sandra fell pregnant with Michael, we were already married, we'd even been trying for a kid, and I still freaked out when she told me. Don't think I was calm until the day he was born." He laughed.

"What're you trying to tell me, Al?"

"Just that you're the last person I thought to be settling down. And happy about it."

"I'm not getting any younger. And I love her, she's amazing."

"You look good together." He raised his shoulders. "It's a good feeling, holding your kid for the first time, hearing their first laugh, their first word."

"I can't wait." He grinned.

"You'll regret saying in a few months. Get as much sleep now as you can."

"So, both the bathrooms were redone last year along with the kitchen. The bedrooms have just been repainted." Sandra smiled as they returned to the kitchen.

"They look very nice." Ziva nodded and smiled, kissing Tony as she walked over. "You taste like coffee." She whispered in his ear.

"You're not having any." He tapped her nose and pushed his mug away from her slightly. "So, what do you think?"

"Of the house?" She asked.

"Could you see yourself living here?" Al smiled.

"I do not think we could afford to live in a place like this." She sighed. "But I do like it here." Tony nodded to his friend and the homeowners walked through to the living room. "Maybe in a few years."

"Yeah, there's the funny thing." Tony laughed. "Al has a job waiting for him in California. The family leaves in two months, need to sell quickly so not asking for much, don't need it either." He added the last part quietly. "Al's been working on this house since he left Ohio, wants it to go to someone he knows will keep it in good condition." Ziva raised her eyebrows.

"So we are buying a house?" She grinned and hugged him.

"I didn't expect you to be so excited." He laughed, hugging her back and kissing the top of her head. "I was expecting you to say that we should wait until we know that everything's ok."

"Well, I think that we are fortunate to have such an offer, and if you are as serious about this as I am, then if something goes wrong there are always second chances." She laid her hand on his chest and smiled softly.

"You're so amazing." Tony grinned.

"We are doing this?"

"We're buying the house."


	20. Chapter XX

XX. Anything Worth Having Is Worth Fighting For.

"You're happy, aren't you?" Tony asked as they lay in bed together.

"Mmhm." She nodded and pressed a kiss to the arm that he had wrapped around her shoulders.

"You're sure we're not moving to fast?" He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"We are having a baby, Tony. I think now is a little bit late for that question." She laughed slightly. "Why? Are you not happy?" She propped herself up on her elbow and looked at him, frowning.

"I am the happiest man in the world." He smiled and kissed her. "I love you."

"I love you more." She grinned and relaxed back, nestling her head on his shoulder.

"Ziva, about your father…" Tony sighed as she climbed out of bed. "Ziva, no, don't…" He followed her.

"I do not want to talk about it." She yanked a sweatshirt on and walked into the kitchen, stuffing a slice of bread in the toaster and hitting the defenceless machine when it refused to turn on.

"Ziva, you need to talk to him." He said, plugging the cord in and standing the appliance upright.

"There is nothing for us to talk about." She looked at him, tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes. "Please leave it alone."

"Ok. We don't have to talk about it." He wrapped her arms around her, pulling her head into his chest and kissing it. He waited for her erratic breathing to settle down. "I'm sorry."

* * *

"Inside is my vote." He handed the envelope to Abby. "Don't open it until she's had the baby." Gibbs warned.

"Your vote on what the baby's gonna be?" Abby grinned, taking hold of the letter.

"Lock it away." He said. "And don't peek." He nodded, unfolding his fingers from the paper sheath.

"How much money are you putting on it?" She asked, opening a cupboard under her desk and unlocking a safe.

"None. How long you had a safe there?"

"Since my crazy psyco lab assistant tried to kill me." She smiled and locked the envelope away. "Do you think they're gonna get married?"

"I hope not, Abby." He flashed her a grin.

"Oh, Gibbs, don't you think it would be better for the baby?" She shook her head.

"Not for us, though." He shrugged.

"Do you really think that?"

"Been married four times, Abs. You think I don't know what will happen?"

"People have good marriages." Abby argued.

"That may be true." He shrugged, placing a Caf-Pow on her desk. "But I won't hold out much hope."

* * *

"You seem like a good man." Eli walked up behind Tony, who leapt out of his seat.

"Er, I work on that. A lot." He nodded, turning around. "I don't think Ziva'll be happy that I'm talking to you."

"She does not have to know." Eli stood next to Tony's desk. "My daughter has been through a lot."

"She's a wonderful woman." Tony nodded, uncertain of where he was taking the conversation.

"Some of the things she has been through were of my design, others not." Eli shrugged. "When she was younger she was ignorant, she got pregnant…"

"I know." He jumped up from his chair. "But she doesn't think you do."

"I am the director of Mossad. I knew everything that went on in her life." He said. "I did not think she would want to talk about it with me."

"It might have helped."

"It made her stronger." Eli shrugged, following as Tony led him to the elevator.

"Putting her through that was 'training'?" Tony yelled as the doors slid shut.

"No, not planned training, but it helped." He narrowed his eyes. "You do not approve."

"I don't approve of a lot of things your agency do. She was your daughter!"

"Was?" Eli stayed calm, raising his eyebrows.

"After all you've done, you think you can still call yourself her father?"

"Everything I have done, I have done for her sake." He bowed his head. "Agent DiNozzo, you seem to be a good man."

"You've said that already."

"Then let me finish it." The Mossad director looked at him. "You seem to be a good man, and I hope that means that you will be there for her." He paused.

"Always." Tony nodded.

"But do not make the mistake of spoiling her. Take care of my daughter, agent DiNozzo." He walked out of the elevator, leaving Tony to contemplate the conversation and how he was going to keep it from Ziva.

* * *

"You're beautiful." Tony pressed his lips to her forehead.

"So you are fond of telling me." Ziva smiled, looking into his eyes

"I don't think you hear it enough." He grinned, twirling a strand of her hair around one of his fingers. "You're beautiful."

"You are Tony." Her smile widened.

"Am I?" He frowned, patting his chest and his face. "Are you sure?"

"Most definitely." She laughed, placing her hand on his cheek.

"Well, that makes me feel a whole lot better. I was worried I was loosing my me-ness."

"Your me-ness?"

"Yeah, my Tony-ness." He nodded, cradling her face in his hands. "What makes me me."

"Well, that cleared a lot up." She murmured in his ear sarcastically.

"You look tired." He stroked the hollows under her eyes.

"I am fine." She smiled.

"Ok, well, just so I know, is there a reason that we are standing in the hallway outside the door to my apartment instead of actually inside my apartment?"

"Well…" She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Since _you_ are pressing _me_ against the wall, I believe I have no control over whether we are inside or out." She watched him think about that, smiling.

"You're right." He looked at her and frowned. The lock turned in the door across the hall and Tony immediately placed his key in his door, pulling Ziva inside before his neighbour could step outside.

"Why is it that in the two months we have been seeing one another you have met and spoken to all of my neighbours, yet in all the years I have known you, not once have I met any of your neighbours?" She asked, frowning.

"Um, because I don't like any of them and I think you talking to them would be a really bad idea." He shrugged, wrapping his arms around her.

"I do not think that is a good reason for you avoiding them. Have you ever even spoken to them?" She tapped his lips.

"Sadly, yes. I was invited to a building Christmas party when I first moved here." He said. "The worst forty minutes of my life."

"You only stayed for forty minutes?" She laughed, unbuttoning his shirt.

"Yeah, there was a creepy old woman who followed me everywhere, a man who kept asking to hold my gun." He shuddered. "And then there was this weird blonde woman, she lives downstairs, who literally unzipped my fly. Right there in the middle of the kitchen!" They stood as Ziva began to undo his jeans. She paused.

"I am not really in the mood any more." She shook her head and cringed.

"No, me either." He swallowed.

"I think I need a shower." She shut her eyes.

"Not if I get there first." They looked at one another before both running towards the bathroom.


	21. Chapter XXI

XXI. It Is Easier To Build Strong Children Than To Repair Broken Men.

"Stop fidgeting." Tony whispered.

"I am not fidgeting." Ziva hissed.

"You are, calm down." He laid his hand on her knee. She scanned the waiting room for the third time in ten minutes. It smelt like strong antiseptic. She gripped his hand. "Hey, it's alright." He smiled, moving her hair away from her face.

"Miss David?" Ziva flinched as the nurse mispronounced her name. Tony shook his head at her as they both stood up and followed her into a smaller room.

"Ah, Miss Ziva David I presume." The doctor smiled.

"It is pronounced Zee-vah Dah-veed." She snapped, ignoring Tony as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"But it's not spelt like that." The nurse smiled and shook her head, laughing with a bubbly sound that matched her bubble-gum pink hair.

"But that is how it is pronounced!" The liaison officer growled, fighting against Tony's restraining hands.

"Is it French?" She bubbled again.

"No it's not French!" Tony yelled. "I'm sorry, even I know that." He shook his head.

"Alice, why don't you go and help Dr Walters?" The doctor pointed to the door. The pink hair bobbed up and down as she nodded and hurried out of the room. "I must apologise for that, she's new, not quiet got her bedside manner perfected yet. I'm Dr Green." She held her hand out and Ziva shook it.

"Tony DiNozzo." Tony grinned proudly. "I'm gonna be a father."

"Ok, well, we'll just check everything's happy then." She smiled kindly. "If you'll just take a seat."

"Can we see our little baby?" Tony asked, his eyes lighting up like a child's on Christmas.

"Well, we'll see what we can do." Dr Green nodded. She hit a few buttons and a machine whirred to life, humming quietly. "I know it's chilly today, but could you just roll your jumper up." She smiled. "Where do you work?" The doctor distracted Ziva.

"Ha, that is a complicated question." Ziva smiled. "I am an officer of Mossad working as a liaison with NCIS."

"Israeli? I thought I recognised the accent. I had a colleague from Tel Aviv." She smiled. "NCIS, sounds like a federal agency?"

"Navy investigators." Tony nodded. "You know a lot."

"Well, you meet all sorts of people in this job." She smiled. "You work together?"

"Yeah, three years now." Tony grinned and placed his hand in Ziva's. "Though I'm not Mossad, just an agent."

"What do your bosses think of this?" The doctor smiled slightly, adjusting one of the dials.

"He is a hard man to read." Ziva raised her eyebrows and laughed quietly. "But he seems okay with it."

"Behind all the cold stares and head-slaps, Gibbs is very happy for us." Tony kissed her hand.

"There…" The doctor pointed to the screen. "Is one of your children, and there is the other." She moved her finger two inches to the left. Tony and Ziva looked at one another.

"Two?" Ziva shook her head and laughed. "There must be a mistake."

"Don't you need a second opinion on this?" Tony asked shaking his head. "Did McGee and Abby put you up to this?"

"No, it's clear as crystal, see." She pointed again. "There are two."

"Two." Tony nodded. "I think we can cope with twins."

"You do not sound confident, Tony." Ziva smiled weakly, feeling about as certain as he sounded, if that.

"Well, we did alright with Mina and Elsie, and we were stuck in an isolated one bedroom cabin with them, so I think we can do fine."

"Alright." The doctor smiled. "Everything seems fine, everyone looks healthy. You appear to be about eight weeks along."

"Thank you." Ziva smiled.

"Considering how active your job is, I recommend taking early desk duty, if not early maternity leave." Dr Green smiled, raising her eyebrows when Ziva did not. There was a silence in the room before Ziva began to speak.

"When I was 19 I…"

"I reviewed your medical records, I know." She smiled gently, placing a hand on hers. "Have you experienced any signs of morning sickness or queasiness?"

"I have had some slight…Tony, what is the word? It begins with a N." She clicked her fingers together, making an nnnnn sound to try to remind herself.

"Nausea." He nodded.

"Does it mean what I want it to say?" She asked him, frowning.

"Feeling sick, but not necessarily vomiting." The doctor nodded.

"Yes, that is what I mean. Nausea." She tried the word out.

"May I ask whether you experienced this in your first pregnancy?"

"No, I do not recall feeling nausea."

"That suggests that there is a better chance of survival: there is a theory that morning sickness is a survival mechanism to prevent mothers for ingesting harmful substances. I just recommend more frequent check-ups, abstaining from alcohol, caffeine, smoking, try to avoid unwarranted danger at work. At the moment everything looks perfect. Just try to avoid stress."

"I think we can do that." Tony smiled. "We just need to avoid Abby at all costs. And Gibbs."

"Like that will be possible." Ziva laughed, holding his hand. "Thank you." She nodded to the doctor as she stood up.

"You're welcome." She smiled, shaking their hands. "I hope to see you soon."

* * *

"They are so tiny." Ziva traced the shapes of the twins on the ultrasound image as Tony drove back to the navy yard.

"Who do you think is going to be so shocked by the fact that we're having twins?"

"Abby will be most excited." She shrugged.

"No surprize there." He laughed. "Just think. Two little DiNozzo-David's running around."

"That is a scary thought indeed." She laughed with him as they pulled into Tony's usual parking space. "Who do we tell first?"

"Whoever asks first, I guess." He kissed her cheek. "You're beautiful."

"You are Tony." She smiled, running her thumb along his cheekbone.

"That a compliment?"

"The highest." She smiled, climbing out of the blue 64 Mustang. "You realise that neither of our cars are exactly child friendly."

"What's not child friendly about this?" He stroked the canvas top.

"It only has two seats." She looked at him incredulously.

"Well, I'm not getting rid of it." He pouted as she walked around the side of the car to him.

"I do not want to lose my car either." She took his hand. "But we may have to."

He sighed and shook his head. "It's a good job I love you because I would have gotten Abby to kill anyone else telling me to sell my car without leaving a trace of evidence."

"Even McGee?" She asked as they pushed through the front doors and into the elevator.

"Yeah."

"Director Shepard?" They exited the sliding doors.

"Yeah."

"Gibbs?"

"No." He turned and looked at her. "The man would come back as a ghost and haunt me."

"You do not believe in ghosts, Tony." She sat down at her desk.

"Yeah, but the man moves like a ghost already, maybe he is one…" He drifted off, a frown set deep in his face.

"That so, DiNozzo? And when is it that I supposedly died?" Gibbs stood behind him.

"Uh, hypothetical situation, boss." Tony winced in anticipation of the dreaded head slap. "I'm not saying that you are a ghost, just that you might be…uh, maybe we're all ghosts…"

"Give up now, Tony." Ziva shook her head, smiling slightly.

"How'd it go?" Gibbs smiled, walking past DiNozzo – still stood in anticipation – and standing in front of Ziva. Abby, McGee, Palmer and Ducky all stood beside Tim's desk, listening in."

"We are all fine, everybody is healthy and happy." A smiled played on Ziva's lips slightly as Gibbs raised his eyebrows. She stood up as he hugged her.

"Twins, huh?" He whispered in her hear and she nodded, noticing that nobody else had picked up on the suggestion behind her words.

"How did you know?"

"My gut." He shrugged. "Congratulations." He kissed her forehead and squeezed her thumb in the same way her father used to do when she was little. "You too, DiNozzo." He stroked his senior field agent's head in the same place that he usually hit. "For once, you got something right."

"Can we see?" Abby bounded over at that point, much like an energetic puppy. Ziva handed the image to her and Ducky frowned.

"I don't wish to alarm you in any way, but it is very clear from this that you are expecting twins. I would recommend finding a new doctor." The Scotsman looked at them and Tony laughed.

"We know, Duckman." He patted the pathologist's shoulder.

"Well why didn't you say so?" Abby exclaimed. "That should be the first thing you tell someone! Having twins is even huger than you two just having a baby!"

"Of course it is Abby, we are having _two_ babies." Ziva looked at everyone, confused.

"I think she means metaphorically." Jimmy piped in.

"I do not understand."

"Well, when we found out that you were pregnant, we didn't know you were seeing anyone…"

"Let alone Tony…" Abby cut McGee off before he regained control of the conversation.

"No, so that was like, the biggest news of the last fifty years…"

"Maybe more…" McGee glared at the forensic scientist for interrupting him.

"But what Abby's saying is that having twins is big for anyone, and so for you two it's even bigger."

"McGee, stop your McBabbling." Tony grinned.

"Tony, you can't talk in that way to a child." Tim sighed.

"And I won't, McProbilicious." He flinched as Gibbs' hand collided with the back of his head. "Sorry boss."

"Hey, lets all go out for drinks tonight to celebrate!" Abby jumped up and down.

"Abby, I cannot drink." Ziva looked at her.

"And I have a date tonight." Palmer grinned as all heads swivelled to look at him.

"The gremlin has a date?" Tony walked closer. "Who is this girl?"

"Oh, just someone I met at the…rubber glove convention that I went to last month."

"I went with you to that." Ducky frowned at him.

"I met her as I was going to the restroom." Palmer nodded, finding his answer adequate.

"You met her going to the restroom?" Tony shook his head.

"Hey, some of our most meaningful conversations have been in the head." Ziva raised her eyebrows at him.

"That's very true. I wish you all the luck and happiness you need, Palmer." He clamped his hand onto the young ME assistant's shoulder.

"Well, how about everybody else?"

"Got plans." Gibbs shrugged, walking away from the crowd surrounding Ziva's desk. Everybody stared at him. "What?!" He questioned their looks.

"Well, you just never seem to have plans, boss." Tony said without thinking.

"That right, DiNozzo?"

"Well, no, it's just 'cause you're so private. What is it that you're doing?"

"None of your business, DiNozzo."


	22. Chapter XXII

**Slightly shorter today, but there will be another chapter up tomorrow.**

XXII. Happy Is the Man Who Finds a True Friend, And Far Happier Is He Who Finds That True Friend In His Wife. 

"Jethro, why have you called this clandestine meeting in your basement?" Ducky asked as he descended the stairs.

"Nothing clandestine about it, Duck." He said, flicking the light on.

"Then why's it just us three?" Abby asked, frowning at the severe lack of boat. "What did you do to your boat?"

"Finished it." He placed a pile of papers on the worktop in front of them.

"What's all this in aid of, Jethro?"

"Before we start, I want you to know that this secret is to be guarded with your life. Understand, Abby?"

"Yes, sir." She saluted.

"I'm building the furniture for Tony and Ziva's babies." He said. "These are the blueprints." He tapped the drawings in front of him. "I need you two to help, seeing as I have more to build now."

"Gibbs, I broke your boat the last time I did anything down here." Abby said quietly.

"That's why you're decorating them. They are going to be white with pastel colours, Abs. No black or red."

"What about me?"

"You, Duck, are gonna help me build them." He placed a pile of hand tools in front of him.

* * *

Abby woke up to the smell of sawdust. She blinked her eyes and stretched, looking around Gibbs' basement. He was sat carving detail into a block of wood. "Where'd Ducky go?" She asked, pulling the rough wool blanket tighter around her shoulders to keep out the chill.

"Home." Gibbs didn't look up from the teddy bear design he was carving into the corner post of one of the cribs.

"What time is it?"

"'Bout 0400." He said, looking at his watch. "I didn't mean to keep you here last night."

"What happens when they go out and buy a whole set of furniture because they don't know that we've built this?"

"I'll get McGee to work something out."

"I thought that no-one was to know under any circumstances?" Abby walked over.

"McGee won't know 'til I tell him." Gibbs looked at her.

"I promise I won't tell anyone." She nodded. "I'm gonna take a shower." She grinned and skipped up the stairs. Gibbs shook his head. He didn't know if it was a mistake telling Abby. She wasn't the best with secrets, but she was by far the best with paint.

* * *

"Wow, nice decorating Abby." Tony looked around the Christmassy lab.

"It's only seven days until Christmas - I need to be ready. What to do want?"

"What, can't I just come and see my friend?"

"I meant what do you want for Christmas." She looked at him. "You seem nervous."

"I want to propose to Ziva, but I don't know how."

"Oh, Tony, that's brilliant!" She hugged him, her pigtails bouncing. "Not you not knowing how, but you two getting married."

"Yeah, well. I was thinking proposing on Christmas morning, but she doesn't celebrate Christmas."

"Well then it will make the day special for her as well as you." Abby grinned. "Tony, I don't think Ziva will care about when you propose or how you propose or where you propose. I think it just matters that you mean it and that it makes her happy."

"I guess you're right." He nodded.

"So have you thought about rings yet?"

"Done more than thought about." He placed a small black box on the counter.

"Can I see?" She grew excited, jumping up and down. He shook his head slowly, snapping the box into his hand and slipping it into his jacket pocket.

"You have to wait. It's only seven days, Abby." He shook his head. "Thanks for the advice."

"You're welcome." She beamed.

"This is a secret, Abby. No-one else knows." He looked at her with raised eyebrows, hoping he hadn't made a mistake telling his Goth friend.

"What is it with everybody and secrets?" She muttered, turning away from him.

"What'd you say?"

"Nothing." She replied too quickly.

"You said something about secrets."

"I was just saying that everybody's wanting me to keep so many secrets these days."

"Like what?" Tony asked, walking closer, a grin spreading across his face.

"Well…there was Ziva and the babies, now there's you and the proposal. It's just so tricky. I'm not very good at this."

"That's an understatement. If anyone finds out about this, I will restrict all Caf-Pow traffic into this lab. And, you won't be invited to the wedding." He threatened her.

"My lips are sealed."

"They better be." Tony said, his brow furrowed as he walked out of her lab. She breathed a sigh of relief and picked Bert up, squeezing him.


	23. Chapter XXIII

XXIII. One Loyal Friend Is Worth Ten Thousand Relatives.

"Hello." Ziva smiled as she opened the door to Tony's apartment. "Have you been ok?"

"Yeah." Elsie nodded and hugged her.

"I'm sorry about this." The blonde woman holding Mina apologised. "Alison." She held her hand out and Ziva shook it, replying with her own name and smiling at the foster parent.

"It is fine." She moved aside, picking Elsie up as they walked into the lounge area. Ziva had received a phone call the day before from Alison saying that both children were playing up and the eldest wanted to see them.

Everybody was gathered around Tony's Christmas tree, decorating it. "Tony!" Elsie ran over to him as she was placed on the floor.

"Hey, kiddo." Tony picked her up. "We've just started, you want to help?"

"Mmhm." She nodded. He placed her on the floor and pulled out a tangle of lights.

"DiNozzo, what have I told you about keeping the lights untangled?"

"I didn't know you care so much about the correct storage of cables, boss." McGee smiled.

"I don't McGee, it just takes time to unravel them." He looked at the junior agent.

"Yes, boss, what was I thinking?" He muttered sarcastically to Abby who laughed.

"Are you excited for Christmas tomorrow?" Ducky asked the child as Gibbs helped her wrap the lights around the tree.

"Yeah! I hope Santa's going to come, but he might not." She sighed.

"Why won't Santa come?" Jimmy asked, frowning.

"Because he might not be able to find me now I don't live at my old home." Ziva looked at Alison and raised her eyebrows, walking towards the kitchen.

"I do not celebrate Christmas, but I understand the importance of the role of Santa Claus. Have you suggested in any way that she will not be receiving gifts from him?" Ziva hissed quietly as the door to the kitchen shut behind them.

"No, I wouldn't do that. My husband spent the last two days buying gifts for them." She said. "I don't know who you think you are, talking to me like I don't know how to take care of children…"

"I am not saying that you do not know how to take care of children, I just do not want to see them hurt." Ziva sighed. "They have been through a lot."

"I know." Alison nodded.

"Hey, all okay in here?" Tony asked, walking through and pecking Ziva's cheek as he opened his fridge. "Can I get either of you anything?"

"No, thank you." Ziva shook her head as he took out two bottles of beer.

"You sure? I was thinking about making virgin tequila sunrises."

"Tony, virgin tequila sunrises require lemonade or soda water. We have neither. It would just be orange juice and grenadine." She frowned at him and shook her head.

"Oh, yeah…" He nodded. "Maybe not then."

"No, I do not think so." She smiled at him, placing her hand on his cheek and kissing him.

"You gonna re-join us out there?" He asked, nodding towards the door. Alison and Ziva looked at one another and nodded, both walking out. "What was that all about?" He whispered in Ziva's ear as he handed the beers to Abby and Jimmy.

"Nothing." She smiled, and kissed his cheek. "Do not worry about it." He looked at her, narrowing his eyes.

"Antony, are we just keeping the tree red and gold?" Ducky asked.

"Yeah." Tony nodded.

"Well, is crystal included in that?" Abby asked, holding up a small snowflake.

"My mum gave me that, it goes on the tree." He said quietly. Abby hung it on the tree and the noise level began to rise again.

"How's the baby?" Elsie asked, crawling onto the sofa next to where Ziva had sat down with Jenny. She patted Ziva's flat stomach carefully.

"Do you want to hear a secret?" Ziva grinned and whispered loudly.

"Yeah." Her eyes lit up.

"There are two babies in there." She smiled at the child's shock.

"How do they both fit?" Elsie asked, pressing her ear to Ziva's abdomen.

"They are both very, very tiny." Jenny explained.

"Can I see them?" She asked, sitting up on the expectant mother's lap.

"When they are born, I'm sure you can come and see them if it's alright with Alison." Tony sat on the arm of the chair.

"You promise?" She pouted.

"Pinkie-promise." Tony held out his little finger and let the child wrap hers around it. Gibbs walked over, handing Mina to Ziva, and sat down.

"Tree's done. All that's left is to put the star on top." He shrugged.

"Can I do it?" Elsie asked, standing up and wrapping her arms around Tony's neck as he lifted her up.

"Sure you can." McGee handed her the golden star. Tony lifted her up and she placed it on the top of the tree, grinning when Abby took a photo.

"We need a Christmas photo of everybody together." Abby said, making everybody gather around the tree and the piano. Alison volunteered to take the camera and Gibbs picked Elsie up, standing between Abby and McGee. Ducky hit the button that made his bowtie light up and Tony wrapped his arms around Ziva as she held Mina. Just before Alison hit the shutter button Jenny passed Abby a Santa hat which she jammed onto Gibbs' head. A chorus of laughs flooded the room as the flash went off, Gibbs revealing a rare smile.

* * *

"Night-night" Tony kissed Elsie's forehead.

"Would you find it intrusive if we arranged a regular visit with them?" Ziva asked Alison as she handed the younger of the two girls over.

"I think they would like that." Alison nodded.

"I am sorry that I implied you did not know how to take care of them."

"I understand. You just want what's best for them." She nodded. "And thanks for letting us stay."

"You are very welcome." Ziva smiled as Gibbs picked the sleeping Elsie up and carried her outside. He carried her to Alison's car, buckling her in and closing the door as Alison did the same on the other side with the younger of the children.

"Ziva seems to be very…hostile." She said, watching the older man over the top of her car.

"She's been through a lot. She doesn't mean to be, but trust is something that she has difficulties with." He shrugged.

"Does it get better?"

He looked at her and tilted his head. "Yeah. So long as you don't do anything to forfeit her trust."

"You have a nice family, full of good, happy people." She nodded. "Thank you." She climbed into the car. He tipped his head and watched as they drove away, walking back to Tony's apartment.


	24. Chapter XXIV

**I was going to upload this tomorrow, but I already have something planned to upload for you tomorrow, which I have just finished, so I decided to be nice and upload this now.**

XXIV. There Is Always Some Madness In Love, But There Is Also Always Some Reason In Madness.

Tony stirred to the warm smell of cinnamon and ginger. He reached out to Ziva, hitting empty air, a cold pillow. Rolling over, he blinked and stretched, smiling as he heard a clatter in the kitchen. He followed the noise and the smell into the warm room. "You made cinnamon pancakes!" He grinned and hugged her as he walked up behind her, kissing her temple. "And gingerbread men!"

"I couldn't sleep." Ziva turned around in his arms, wrapping hers around his neck and kissing him.

"Well, I am very grateful." He murmured. "Smells delicious."

"They are ready to be eaten, you just need to let me serve them."

"Do you want something to drink?"

"Considering coffee is out of the question I think a tea will suffice." She smiled as he poured himself a mug.

"No, tea is off limits too. Tea has a high enough caffeine level to be a hazard."

"So what can I drink?" She looked at him.

"There is fresh fruit juice in the fridge. Or water, water's good. Oh, I can make smoothies!"

"Tony, water will be fine." She smiled, placing her hand on his chest to calm his excitement. "You are never this awake in the morning."

"It's Christmas, Ziva. I'm allowed to be excited."

"You were not this excited last year." She looked at him sceptically.

"Last year we were working. And anyway, last year I didn't wake up to a beautiful woman making pancakes and gingerbread men. Particularly not a beautiful woman carrying two very special little babies." He grinned and kissed her, his hands on her waist as his thumbs stroked the sides of her stomach.

She ran her hands through his hair, reaching up and kissing his nose. "What time are we going to Ducky's?" She asked quietly.

"Noon." He paused. "Please tell me it wasn't my wonderful kissing skills that triggered your thought about Ducky?"

"No." She laughed and shook her head. "I was thinking about it before you distracted me."

"I thought you never got distracted." He grinned.

"When did I ever say that?" She frowned, placing a pile of pancakes on a plate and handing them to Tony.

"I don't think you ever specified it explicitly, but I do believe you made reference to it on multiple occasions." He flashed a grin and took a mouthful of food. "This is amazing!"

"You have to get the amount of cinnamon just right, otherwise it does not work." She smiled, spearing her fork through the corner of one of the flat cakes on Tony's plate.

"You could have your own plate, you know." He said.

"You never seem to have a problem with eating off of other people's plates." She challenged, her eyes fixed to his.

"Touché." He raised his eyebrows and ate some more, his eyes never once leaving hers.

* * *

"Okay, so I know that you do not celebrate Christmas, but this isn't a Christmas present, so it's all ok." Tony knelt down on one knee in front of Ziva, holding the little black box. "It would make me the happiest man in the world if you, Ziva David, would be my wife." They were gathered in Ducky's living room, exchanging gifts. She smiled and tears rolled down her cheeks as she knelt down to be the same height as him.

"Yes." She whispered, nodding. "Yes." He pressed his lips to hers, cradling the back of her head with one hand as he slipped the ring onto her finger with his other. The silence that enveloped them was broken by the applause that echoed through the room, and Abby's inevitable squealing.

"Yay, this is so exciting!" Abby jumped about. They looked up at her and laughed, the serious moment dissolving away as everyone else joined in with the congratulations, though slightly quieter than Abby's initial cheers.

"I think this calls for champagne." Ducky grinned, standing up from his armchair and walking out of the warm room, returning with a bottle and champagne flutes. "Jimmy, would you mind collecting the rest of the glasses from the kitchen?"

"Of course not, Dr Mallard." He smiled and nodded, pushing his spectacles up his nose.

"Ducky, I cannot have any." Ziva shook her head as he handed her a glass.

"Ziva dear, one glass is fine." Ducky smiled.

"No, Ducky." She shook her head and grinned. "But that does not mean that everybody else should not enjoy a glass."

"Well, I'll raise a glass to that." Tim grinned and a host of laughs and whoops filled the atmosphere.

"Some music, I think." Ducky walked to his turntable and slipped a record in, Christmas carols beginning to play. He spun Abby around as he walked past her and she laughed as Tim caught her and they began to dance.

"It's beautiful." Gibbs smiled as he helped her stand up, running a thumb over the silver band with a diamond inset.

"It is." She nodded as Tony slipped his hand around her waist. "How did you manage to keep this a secret?"

"Well, only Abby knew." Tony shrugged. "And I told her that she couldn't come to the wedding if she told anyone." Ziva and Gibbs laughed, watching Tim and Abby dance around Ducky's living room, not keeping entirely in time with the music.

* * *

"Come here." Tony smiled, placing his hands around Ziva's waist. "I love you."

"I love you more." She kissed her fiancé. She liked the sound of that. "What?" She asked as he stopped kissing her.

"Let's watch a movie. It doesn't have to be Christmassy." He grinned.

"Tony, I was enjoying what we were doing." She sighed.

"So was I, but it's only…" He looked at his watch. "Only 1900. Wow, it's earlier than I though."

"What were you suggesting?" She caved.

"White Christmas'."

"Tony, that is a Christmas movie." She tilted her head, confused.

"No it's not." He laughed and shook his head.

"It has Christmas in its title."

"Okay, so maybe it is…we can watch…"

"We can watch it if you want." She kissed him quickly. "Marriage is all about compromise."

"You make a good point, my little ninja." He plucked the DVD off of the shelf and placed the disc in the player.

"Who says I am _your_ 'little ninja'?" She asked quietly, standing so close to him that their noses almost touched.

"The diamond on the ring that you are wearing." He kissed her and she smiled, satisfied for the moment with his answer.

* * *

"Ziva, you know I'll never treat you as property, don't you?" He questioned as they lay entwined on his sofa, a blue afghan the only thing covering them. She lifted her head from his bare chest and smiled softly at him.

"Of course I do." She caressed his face. "Do you think you would still be alive if I thought otherwise?"

"Very true." He chuckled as she settled her head back to its original position on his chest, watching the flames flicker in the fire. He frowned as a drop of moisture landed on his skin and realised she was crying. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I do not know." She sniffed as he sat up, wrapping the woollen blanket around her tighter.

"Then why're you crying?" He reached for a box of tissues and handed her one. He rubbed her back gently and moved her hair so he could see her face. She shook her head, more tears over spilling.

"Are you just staying because of the babies? Are you going to get bored of me?" She looked at him. He chuckled and shook his head. "Do not laugh."

"How could anyone ever get bored of you? Ziva, I love you, more than I have loved anyone. Ever." He sighed. "Don't you realise that you are everything that I could ever want. I honestly don't think you realise that I fear so much every day that you will find someone better than me, because that is not a hard thing to do, finding someone better than me." He wiped her tears away.

"That is not true." She shook her head. "You are so kind and loving and you care so much. I am an assassin, Tony. I am not designed to love or care."

"You are much more than an assassin, Ziva. You are so much better. You do care, just look at Elsie and Mina. You care enough to want to see them regularly, you care enough to see when people are hurting." He kissed her forehead. "You're not an assassin, Ziva."

"That is what I was trained to be."

"I don't think it really matter's what you were _trained_ to be, just what you are." He kissed her temple, pressing kisses to her jawbone as he moved down. "You are a beautiful woman." Kiss. "You are independent." Kiss. "Confident." Kiss. "Loving." Kiss. "Genius." Kiss. "Slightly crazy." Kiss. She giggled. "Genuine." Kiss. "Gentle." He sighed softly as he reached her lips, falling backwards with one hand on the small of her back and the other tangled in her hair. She kissed him back, her tears slowing to a halt as she smiled. "I love you, and that is all that should matter to you."


	25. Chapter XXV

**Merry Christmas, if you do of course celebrate Christmas, I would hate to assume. I was not planning upon uploading this today, but I felt that I would be nice, since I do not know when I will be uploading another chapter - I am away for a couple of days. This one is not so Christmassy, but I did upload my Christmas present to you all earlier today, so do check that out. We are starting another case as well, and this one is, well, you will see.**

XXV. Whoever Said Nothing Is Impossible Never Tried Nailing Jell-O To A Tree.

"Tony, we are going to be late for work." Ziva chuckled as he pulled her back down onto the bed.

"I don't think anyone will mind." He scraped her hair back off of her face.

"I certainly will not object, so long as you will be the one to tell Gibbs why we are late." She kissed him and grinned as he froze.

"You're right, we need to get to work." He sat up, re-buttoning his shirt for the third time that morning and throwing Ziva her jeans. "Don't want to anger the beast."

"Especially since he was in such a good mood yesterday."

"Gibbs is always in a good mood on Christmas. I think it's his way of tricking us, lulling us into a false sense of security."

"Or maybe he just likes the holidays." He looked up at her when she said that and they both shook their heads. "Your version is more likely." She nodded, a smile spreading across her face.

"I have known the man longer." He shrugged and laughed. "And I still don't know how to get on his good side. Or if he even has one." He frowned, locking the door behind him.

* * *

"I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date, no time to say hello good bye, I'm late I'm late I'm late…" Tony muttered as they ran through the building.

"A book, at last." Ziva grinned.

"No, I was thinking of the 1951 Disney cartoon. Bill Thompson as the white rabbit." He grinned.

"I have only read the book." She frowned as they stopped in the elevator.

"You really need a movie-cation. We're gonna watch Star Wars and Alice in Wonderland and every other movie you have never seen." He sighed and shook his head.

"What is a movie-cation?" She asked as they exited the elevator.

"An education in movies. It is important."

"David, DiNozzo, nice of you to join us at last." Gibbs didn't look up as they sat at their desks.

"Couldn't find my keys." "We got caught in the snow." Tony and Ziva said, synchronized, looking at one another and then to their boss.

"DiNozzo, would you and officer David like a moment to get your stories straight?"

"Uh, no boss." He shook his head. "See, the thing is, Ziva just looked so beautiful this morning and so I…"

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs yelled as Ziva threw an eraser at her fiancé. "I do not need the explicit details of you sex life!"

"I was just being honest, boss." He smiled, a smile that fell at the sight of Gibbs' glare. "Duly noted. It won't happen again. Well, it probably will happen again, not the being late or the detailing of our sex life, but the er… Shutting up boss." He looked at his superior's expression.

"Good, DiNozzo." Gibbs answered his phone, listened and hung up. "Got a dead petty officer. Gear up."

* * *

"Well this is…" Tony fought for the words.

"Yes." Jimmy frowned.

"Unusual?" Tim suggested.

"Quite." Ducky stared.

"He looks happy." Ziva tilted her head. They all looked at her with raised eyebrows. "He is smiling." She pointed.

"He's suspended in a swimming pool of Jell-O." Gibbs stated.

"Is it bad that I really want a bowl of lime Jell-O right now?" She looked at the five men. "I will take your expressions to mean yes."

"I didn't think you were allowed to eat gelatine?" Tim frowned.

"You can make Jell-O out of agar-agar." Ziva grinned. "Perfectly kosher."

"How'd they get it to set?" Tony crouched down and poked the red gelatinous substance with a gloved finger.

"I think the bigger question is 'how much Jell-O powder would something like this need?'" Jimmy said.

"And who would have that much just lying around?" Ducky added.

Gibbs looked at all of his people and shook his head. "No, the question I want an answer to is 'why is he submerged in Jell-O and who put him there?'"

"Jethro, I find a more pressing issue at this precise moment to be 'how are we going to get the poor fellow out of there and back to the lab?'" Ducky sighed.

"We don't." Gibbs murmured quietly to his friend and shrugged.

"Abby is going to have a field trip." Ziva laughed to Tony, McGee and Jimmy.

"Field day, Ziva. A field trip is when you go out into the field…on a trip." Tony said, hitting the button on the camera to capture the image of Ziva's confusion.

"Ziva's right, DiNozzo." Gibbs looked at him. "Get Abby out here."

* * *

"This is so cool!" Abby's face lit up as she ran into the tiled room. The overpowering aroma of cherry had hit her immediately, giving her flashbacks to her childhood.

"No running by the pool." Tony laughed, standing up from where he was photographing, or at least trying to photograph, the petty officer at the bottom of the pool.

"This is like every child's dream!" She walked over and kneeled down by the sugary grave.

"You had strange dreams." Tony stared at her.

"Tell me about it. Once, I had this dream that I was a ragdoll and I kept falling over and having to be sewn back up, I woke up screaming all week because of it." She looked at him. "You've got all this to look forward to." She grinned. "Where's Ziva? I thought she was here with you?"

He shook his head. "The smell of the Jell-O was making her feel sick so she went back with Gibbs."

"It has got quite a powerful smell." She chuckled.

"How much powder would be needed to fill this pool?"

"One 3 ounce sachet takes two cups. Sachet is a very cool word, don't you think?"

"Abby." He looked at her, exasperated.

"The pool is 33' by 15' and 6' deep." She paused, doing the calculations in her head. "That means approximately 355,474 cups…divide by two makes 177737. That's a lot of sachets of Jell-O." She frowned.

"It would take a lot of planning to do that."

"And a lot of money buying Jell-O."

"Not the cheapest murder." Tony scoffed.


	26. Chapter XXVI

XXVI. It's As If We Spend Our Entire Lives Avoiding Jell-O But It Is Always There At The End, Waiting For Us.

"Ducky got the body back yet?" Tony asked as he walked past Ziva's desk, leaning over and kissing her.

"No, still waiting on Abby." She smiled, pulling back.

"You feeling better?" He stroked her cheek.

"A bit. You still smell very strongly of cherry." She breathed heavily through her mouth.

"I'm sorry. That's what comes from being stuck in a room with a swimming pool full of Jell-O all day." he sighed softly, yelping when Gibbs' hand cracked against the back of his head. "What was that for boss?"

"Not getting on with your work."

"I was making sure my fiancée's ok, boss."

"When you should have been working. Is this going to be a problem, DiNozzo?"

"No boss. I was just getting back to work." He nodded.

"Good."

"Petty Officer Ryan Woodson." Ziva said, jumping up and pointing the remote at the plasma screen. "Just got back from a deployment on the USS Sampson."

"No wife or kids, his parents were wealthy." Tim stood up and walking over to his colleagues.

"Hence the big house with the big pool." Tony grinned. Everyone stared at him.

"I wanna know who bought all the Jell-O." Gibbs said.

"Er, yes boss. I'll see if anybody has been buying notably big quantities of Jell-O." Tony nodded, walking to his desk.

"Ziva, you…"

"Check if there have been any robberies involving Jell-O." She finished.

"McGee, see if there is any history of crimes involving large amounts of children's desserts."

"You really think this has been done before?" McGee looked at his boss.

"I think this is a lot of planning for a one time spur of the moment killing."

"Yes boss, of course."

* * *

"Jethro." Fornell stood in the centre of the room.

"What has NCIS done to piss the FBI off now?" Gibbs asked sarcastically.

"You've got our Jell-O."

"That a euphemism?" Tony grinned from his desk.

"For what, Tony?" Ziva looked up at him and frowned.

"Don't know. But Abby might, you should ask her." He looked at her as she shook her head.

"Conference room." Gibbs stood up and walked over to the elevator, waiting for the door to shut before hitting the off switch and turning to his civilian counterpart. "What do you want, Tobias?"

"Five months ago a whole load of Jell-O was found in a warehouse, laced with warfarin." Tobias sighed. "One crate had already worked its way into the circulation, we had 40 casualties, twelve fatalities."

"It wasn't publicised?"

"No. We told them it was an outbreak of an undiagnosed virus – now contained. Plot to poison children with warfarin laced Jell-O? It would be a national crisis."

"FBI paid people off to keep quiet? Over Jell-O?" Gibbs snorted.

"No, just persuaded them." The FBI agent looked to the man he considered to be a friend. "We've had the warehouse under observation since we found it, and last month our agents were drugged whilst watching it. The cameras we had focused on it were disabled and the whole building was cleared out. Not a trace left." He looked at Gibbs.

"And you think we've found your Jell-O."

"Yeah."

"Our murder tops your stolen dessert."

"Fine by me. I've worked five months on this case and found no leads. We'll be your back up. I'll call Sacks."

"Hey, there anyway you could have a different agent?" Gibbs asked, knowing what his senior field agent would say if he had to work with Sacks.

"I could see what I can do. Why? You got a problem with one of my men?"

"No, but DiNozzo does. He did accuse him of murder." Gibbs shrugged.

"Since when do you care about how DiNozzo feels?" Tobias laughed.

"He's in a good mood, I don't want to change that."

"You're getting soft in your old age." The agent frowned.

"He and Ziva are having a baby." He shrugged again.

"They getting married?"

"Yep."

"I believe that means you owe me money." Fornell grinned.

"Nope."

"Yeah, I bet you that they would get together after their little under covers operation as assassins."

"I though that was over." Gibbs hit the button and the doors slid open.

"You can't do that. You can't just avoid paying like that."

"Sure I can. I thought that bet was over, you already paid me." They walked into the squad room.

"I hear congratulations are in order." The senior FBI agent smiled at Ziva.

"And why would that be, Agent Fornell?" She asked, not looking away from her monitor screen.

"Well, I heard you and agent DiNozzo are having a baby." He said rather meekly.

"Oh, yes. Thank you." She stood up and smiled. "Two."

"Two what?" He looked between her and Tony.

"Two babies." She frowned. "Did I make a grammatical error?"

"No." Gibbs smiled and shook his head. "Tobias is just shocked."

"Does that mean I owe you?" He walked over and whispered in his friend's ear, groaning when Gibbs nodded.

"Oh, yeah." He laughed.

"I am confused." Ziva said as she raised her hand.

"You're not the only one." Tony blinked and then looked at the yawning woman in front of him. "You're tired."

"I'm fine." She smiled and shook her head, slouching slightly in her chair as her eyes drooped.

"Boss, is it okay if I take Ziva home?" Tony asked quietly.

"Well, no DiNozzo. I want this guy caught." Gibbs glared at him before flicking his eyes to the sleeping woman. "Oh, heck. Go on, take her home. Get some sleep. You too, McGee." He shook his head and sighed.

"Thank you, boss." Tony looked at him and nodded. He woke her up gently, nudging her shoulder "We're going home, come on." He smiled softly and picked her bag up, draping her coat over her shoulders and helping her stand up. "Night."

"Night." Gibbs nodded as they all filed into the elevator.

"You are going soft in your old age." Tobias raised his eyebrows at the spectacle of Gibbs' humaneness. "You were nice!"

"I'm always nice!" He shrugged and stood up, grabbing his bag.

"Gibbs, I don't want to spend the night in your basement drinking bourbon."

"You got a better suggestion?" The silver haired man said to the other. Tobias stopped to think.

"I guess we'll spend the night drinking bourbon in your basement." He tilted his head backwards slightly.

"Yeah, you can help build bedroom furniture for the twins." He flashed a smile as they stepped into the elevator.

"God held you, Jethro, if you even think about handing me a damn spanner."

"We don't got a use for a spanner. Might give you a hand-saw, though."


	27. Chapter XXVII

**Well, it is 2016, at least for me anyway, I do not know about the rest of the world yet. We must all just prey for a better year than the last four. Or five. Or hundred. To be honest I think we should all just prey for a good year, or a decent one at least.**

 **My fictions' reviews have not been loading properly, which is irking me greatly, as I do enjoy reading them.**

 **On a better note than those last two comments I have just made, here is the next chapter of "It takes two", which should make you all happy, I hope. I have been taking some time out to write one-shots recently, some of which have already been uploaded, and so this has been on the back burner as of late.**

XXVII. I Am My Father's Daughter.

"Morning." Tim smiled at Tony and Ziva as he walked into the office.

"You're in a good mood, McChipper." Tony laughed, looking up from Ziva's monitor, both his hands resting on his fiancée's shoulders.

"The snow is thawing today, the roads were less congested, and it's a beautiful morning…"

"Not sure petty officer Woodson would agree." Gibbs said, walking through the squad room and up to Ziva's desk. "You get some sleep last night?"

"Yes, thank you." She nodded.

"Abby wants us down in the garage." McGee said, returning his phone to its cradle.

"Okay, lets go." Gibbs said, tilting his head to the side. They all headed towards the elevator and filed in.

"Gibbs! Tony! Ziva! McGee!" Abby beamed as the elevator doors dinged and slid open. She had been waiting in anticipation for them.

"Abs, whatdaya got?"

"Um, a fruity smelling garage." She grinned and skipped to her work area, assuming that everyone would follow her. "So I had ten 5inch diameter cores taken of the Jell-O, the four corners, the centre and five random samples." She pointed to the long jelly cylinders lying on the table. "Fornell was right, we have the FBI's Jell-O." She stated as thought it were obvious. "But, I compared the FBI's lab results to my own."

"And what d'you find?" Gibbs prompted her when she stood and smiled.

"There were different Warfarin concentrations. The Jell-O that the FBI found had a lower concentration than the Jell-O that we found incarcerating our petty officer, but it was the same in every other respect."

"So what, whoever flooded the pool with Jell-O added more warfarin? Why?" McGee asked, frowning.

"I don't know, McGee. I thought that was your job." Abby smiled.

"Well, I…"

"Abby, there anything else?"

"Well, I have an answer to Tony's question." She grinned. "There was less water than would be used usually to make it up. And having the heating off in the house and the snow meant that the room was chilled."

"How much of our Jell-O was used?" Fornell said, stepping out of the elevator and nodding to the NCIS agent that had escorted him to the evidence garage.

"All of it."

"The whole lot?" Ziva asked, breathing solely through her mouth and still not succeeding to avoid the overly fruity smell.

"The whole lot." She grinned.

"What sort of a terrorist wastes all of their weapon on a murder?" Tony asked, frowning.

"Don't know, DiNozzo, why don't you go find out?" Gibbs turned to him.

"On it, boss."

* * *

"I thought you had gone back to Tel Aviv." Ziva said as she felt her father's presence behind her back.

"I did not want to leave without saying goodbye to my daughter." He smiled, leaning back in the rear seat of her car.

"Of course." She sighed. "Well, you have said it now, so you can go."

"Ziva, Ziva, Ziva…You are so hostile all of a sudden."

"No. I have always been like this." She stared into an empty space of air.

"Never towards me." Eli frowned.

"I should have been. You were the one who made me like this." She snapped. The foreign director sighed and shook his head, deciding a change of subject was in order.

"You are not going home with Tony tonight?" He asked lightly.

"I am, I just did not want him to get stuck between this." She scowled at the reflection in the mirror. "I asked him to pick my notebook up from my desk. It should take him only a short moment to not find it."

"You are wearing a ring. A very nice one, good quality." He smiled, craning his neck to see over the back of her seat to look at her hand resting on the steering wheel. She curled her hand into a fist and moved it to her lap, hiding it from her father's sight.

"Tony has good taste."

"So there will be a wedding? Have you set a date?"

"No." She turned to look at him. "I have to get home, we have plans for this evening."

"Everything I have done, I have done because I love you, Ziva." He sighed and placed his hand on her shoulder, retracting it when she flinched.

"Just go." She glared at him.

"Stay in touch, Ziva. You may not like it, but I am your father." He smiled. She stayed icy, avoiding his gaze. "I do not want to hurt you any more."

"Yet you still do."

"I am sorry, my dear child." He swallowed heavily. "Goodbye." He stroked her chin slightly before clambering out of her car that was, in comparison to his rather large yet elegant size, very small. She stared at the book in his hand as he began to walk away before registering what it was that her father was reading.

"Abba, where did you get that book?" She jumped out of the car.

"It was on a table in the hotel I have been staying at, I decided to read it. It is very imaginative." He held up the copy of _Deep Six_. "I especially like Officer Lisa and Agent Tommy's relationship." He smirked.

"Abba, you must stop reading that. Now." She hurried over to him, her face falling when she saw that his bookmark was almost at the end.

"Why?" He laughed and shook his head. "It would do very little good, I have almost finished reading it."

"Ziva, I couldn't find your…" Tony said as he walked over to his fiancée, pausing as he saw the man standing just out of the glow of the street lamp.

"Agent DiNozzo." Eli nodded and smiled. "I have been enjoying one of your American novels, although my daughter appears to be rather upset about it. Have you read it?"

"Have I read it?" Tony laughed and shook his head. "Of course I've read it, it's about _mgphsd…_ " Ziva's hand clapped over his mouth before he could finish.

"My father has been enjoying reading about Officer Lisa and Agent Tommy's relationship." She raised her eyebrows as Tony cringed.

"I find myself hoping that she tells him how she feels." Eli said, ignoring the scene in front of him.

"Yeah, I think we all were." Tony shuddered at the thought of his future father-in-law reading about the fictional manifestation of his and Ziva's life. "Er, don't we have that thing tonight?" He said to Ziva, trying to come up with an excuse to leave.

"Elsie and Mina are coming over." Ziva smiled and nodded slightly.

"Great. Excellent. Brilliant. I'm so sorry to cut this short, Director David, but we really must be getting home." Tony held his hand out for Eli to shake. They shook and Tony nodded.

"I will be there in a second." Ziva whispered to him. "I would like to say goodbye."

"Ok." He smiled, walking over to her car and climbing in, watching as Ziva inched closer to the older man.

"I am sorry, Abba." She sighed.

"What for?" He frowned, placing his hand on the top of her head.

"For not telling you. I am sorry, I should have."

"And I am sorry for all I have done." He smiled sadly. "If you ever do want to come back to Mossad…"

"My life is here now, father." She said hurriedly, shaking her head.

"I am just saying that there will always be a place for you." He wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "Goodbye, dear child."

"Goodbye, Abba." She closed her eyes as he wrapped his arms around her and held her to his chest. He released her and walked away, leaving her standing in the cone of luminosity emanating from the artificial lamp above her. She trod the path back to her car carefully and climbed in next to Tony.

"D'you need a hug?" He asked, frowning as she sat in a stony stillness.

"No." She said quietly and shook her head slightly, the tears over spilling from her eyes. "I do not know why I am even crying."

"Because he's your father." Tony shrugged. "You want me to drive?"

"No." She sighed, laughing when Tony groaned slightly.

* * *

Elsie laughed as Tony ran around the living room with her slung over his shoulders. Ziva smiled, holding the sleeping infant in her arms. This was what she wanted, a family, laughter, an absence of war and violence. She looked at her watch and sighed, knowing that Alison was going to pick the children up at any moment. They _were_ getting a new house, and they would have three single bedrooms. No, they were having twins. They would need four bedrooms if they were to take the girls in. And then there was the logistics behind the whole legal side.

"Hello? Earth to Ziva?" Tony waved his hand in front of her face. "You okay? You were off in a daze."

"Yes. I was just thinking." She smiled.

"Careful - that could be dangerous." He flashed a grin. "Or so I'm told."

"No, Tony, that is advice just for you." She took his hand in hers and smiled.

"You want to talk about it?"

"No." She flicked a look towards Elsie, who had settled onto the sofa. "Maybe later." He followed her gaze and nodded in understanding.

"You're thinking about ways that we could adopt them, aren't you?" He sighed quietly as Mina stirred from her sleep.

"No. How did you know?" She looked at him as the child gurgled.

"Because I keep thinking about it too." He placed his hand on her shoulder as someone knocked on the door.

"I will get it." Ziva stood up and pecked him on the cheek, glaring at him when he started to protest. "I can open a door, Tony. It is probably Alison, you might want to start getting Elsie ready."

"You're right." He said, nodding.

"Tony, I was just wondering if… Oh, you're not Tony. Where's Tony." An older woman said as Ziva opened the door.

"I am sorry, who is asking?" Ziva said, adjusting Mina in her arms slightly. The small child cooed and began sucking her fist.

"Jennifer. Hi." Tony smiled sickly sweet. "Neighbour." He hissed in Ziva's ear.

"What a beautiful child." She walked into Tony's apartment, ignoring the expressions of Tony and Ziva.

"Jennifer, what do you want?"

"I was wondering if you had a bag of icing sugar that I could use, I'm baking and, silly me, I ran out."

"I don't bake." His face creased into a contorted frown. "I don't even cook."

"I think there might be a bag in the cupboard." Ziva smiled. "Tony, could you take Mina." She handed the little girl to him when he nodded. He bounced her in his arms and kissed the top of her head, making the child laugh more.

"I didn't know you had children." Jennifer said, smiling as Elsie ran over to Tony.

"We don't. Yet." He shrugged as Ziva walked back in with a bag of sugar.

"But that is soon fixed." She picked Elsie up. "They are friends." The child in her arms yawned. "We need to get you ready to go home." She exhaled, her shoulders slumping slightly.

"But I want to stay with you and Tony!"

"But you cannot." Ziva brushed Elsie's fringe out of her eyes. "Alison and Dave are nice, are they not?"

"Yeah." She pouted.

"Then what is the problem?"

"I like you and Tony better. And so does Mina." She opened her eyes wide. "Please."

"No." Tony shook his head. "Sorry, Kiddo." She pouted. "Time to get ready to go."

"But please…"

"No." Ziva said, smiling slightly. "Come on."

"Is it because you do not want us?" She looked sadly between the two people she so desperately wanted to live with. Tony and Ziva sighed simultaneously and looked at one-another.

"Of course that is not it." Ziva sat down on the sofa and placed the elder of the two children on her lap. "Elsie, you know that me and Tony both work."

"To protect people."

"Yes, to protect people. And even though we are moving house, we will still only have three spare bedrooms." Ziva sighed.

"And you are having two babies." Elsie folded down two of the three fingers that Ziva held up. "Which means that you still have one room."

"But two of you." Tony said, closing the front door behind his annoying neighbour, who very nearly refused to leave.

"We can share a bedroom." Elsie said hopefully.

"When you get older you'll want your own room, for privacy." Tony said.

"Maybe I won't." She pleaded with her eyes.

"What if Mina does?"

"What if she doesn't?" The child argued.

"We shall never know." Ziva shook her head slowly and bit her bottom lip. "Where did you leave your shoes?" She said shakily, changing the subject to prevent herself from crying.

* * *

"Bye-bye." Elsie grinned as she high-fived Tony.

"Seeya soon, Kiddo." He smiled, tousling her short hair.

"Bye-bye, little babies." She whispered, patting Ziva's flat stomach. "Bye-bye Ziva." She said to the woman who was still holding her baby sister.

"Goodnight. We will see you next week." She said sorrowfully. She kissed the back of Mina's little hand that was clenched around her index finger. "Goodnight, little one." She handed her over the threshold of the apartment to Alison, who nodded slightly.

"Same time next week?" Alison asked.

"Same time next week." Tony smiled and wrapped his arms around Ziva's waist. "We'll see you then. Goodnight, sleep tight." They waved and the girls waved back, Mina's thrashing motions imitating her sister's wave rather inelegantly. "Ziva, there is no way that we can take them in." He closed the door and hugged her.

"I know." She nuzzled her face into his chest.

"But you still want to." He rubbed her back gently as she cried. "It's been a long day. Lets go to bed." She nodded slowly, inhaling before shaking with a few more tears. "I'm sorry, Ziva."

"Do not be sorry. It is nobody's fault." She let him gently brush the moisture from her cheeks, leaning into his hand when it lingered. He slipped his free hand into hers and pulled her towards the bedroom.


	28. Chapter XXVIII

**It is good to see you all again, my dear invisible friends who may or may not all just be a figment of my imagination, something my brain has dreamt up to keep me company whilst I continue to live on in a happy little world of my own.**

 **I have a feeling that nobody actually reads my babbling at the beginning of my stories, but I do enjoy writing what I am thinking, wondering whether, one day, some poor soul will stumble upon this and worry about the sanity of previous generations. Hello to whomever might be reading this in the future. I wonder, is it any nicer there than it is at this date?**

 **Anyway, I digress. What was it I had wanted to say? Oh, yes. So, as some may be aware, I have spent some time playing around with other little one-shots and stories in different styles, which I have actually quite enjoyed, so I do recommend going and having a look, even if it is just some procrastination to take you away from whatever mundane task it is you are supposed to be doing at the time you are reading this, because we all know that everybody has something more important to be doing than reading fan fiction. Heck, most of the time I have something more important to be doing than writing it.**

XXVIII. I Would Venture A Guess That Anon., Who Wrote So Many Poems Without Signing Them, Was Often A Woman.

Ziva chuckled as Tony scattered her jawbone with light kisses. Her eyes fluttered open and she turned her head to face him. "Sleep well?"

"Yes, before you woke me up."

"Well, you just looked so beautiful and peaceful."

"And you disturbed that peace." She pressed her lips to his and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Well, I don't see you complaining." He muttered.

"That is because I am not."

"Well, I'm not either." Tony shrugged and laughed, moving her hair back. "Although, the reason I woke you up was because you overslept." He pointed to the alarm clock with the bullet hole in the top. Apparently Ziva had had some difficulties adjusting to the time difference in America when she had first arrived.

"Well, why have you not got ready for work yet?"

"I figured that seeing as you were having a lie-in, I would too." He groaned as he stretched and slipped out of bed.

"I have noticed I have been oversleeping a lot lately." The Mossad officer yawned.

"Yeah, I was talking to Ducky about that. He said it's usual. You know, you have two whole humans growing inside of you, so I think you're allowed to be tired."

"Well, I am so glad that I am _allowed_." She replied sarcastically, sauntering into the bathroom to get ready.

"I didn't mean it like that and you know it." He said, wishing he would think before he spoke for once. "Ziva." He sighed, leaning against the wall next to the bathroom door. He waited until he heard the shower turn on and gave up, trying a new tactic. He set about making breakfast, pancakes.

He grinned at her as she walked through to the kitchen, her damp hair tumbling over her shoulders. He set the plate in front of her as she sat down and smiled slightly. "Bribery will get you everywhere, Tony."

"You know I didn't mean what I said the way I said it."

"Then do not say things in the way that they do not mean what you mean." She had forgiven him, but letting him know that wasn't something that was at the forefront of her mind at that precise moment in time.

"I'm confused."

"Me too." She grinned and brushed her lips across his, ignoring the plate of food he had placed in front of her. He pressed one final kiss to her lips before hurrying off to get ready, not noticing as they finally left the apartment that she had not touched the pancakes.

* * *

"Petty Officer Woodson was written up for fighting last month." Tim said, watching as Tony and Ziva hurried into the office.

"Why was he fighting?" Gibbs asked, ignoring his two agents who had walked to stand next to them at the plasma.

"Don't know." He shrugged. "But I do know who he was fighting with." McGee interjected before Gibbs could lose his patience.

"You gonna make me ask, McGee?"

"Oh, no. Um, a petty officer Iain Merston."

"Go interview him. Take Ziva." Gibbs nodded. Ziva stared at him, confused.

"Are you not mad that we are late?" Ziva turned to her boss.

"Yeah."

"So why…?"

"Am I letting you get away with it? I'm not." He glared at her. "Now go."

"Yes boss." She nodded and followed McGee to the elevator.

"Gibbs, I'm sorry about being late, I just wanted to let her sleep 'cos she's real tired and I…"

"Tony, it's fine." Gibbs shrugged. "I understand."

"Yeah, but you know, it's not her fault, I mean she can't really help being tired, it's just…wait, what?"

"I understand. I've been there."

"Yeah, but, you know, you said you were mad?"

"Nah, not really. I just don't want you to think I'm getting soft – Fornell already thinks that."

"How could anyone think you were getting soft, boss?" Tony asked, grinning. "What is it I'm supposed to be doing?"

"Working out how whoever killed petty officer Woodson got in to fill his pool with Jell-O."

"Right, yeah. On it, boss." He sat down at his desk.

* * *

"Petty Officer Merston?" Ziva asked as she and McGee stood behind the young man rebuilding a Humvee.

"Who's asking?" He lifted his head out from the bonnet and looked at the two gold badges that they held out. He wiped his hands on a rag hung over his toolbox and bit his lip. "What can I do for NCIS?"

"You can tell us about Petty Officer Woodson." Ziva narrowed her eyes when he started looking her up and down, a small smile gracing his lips and she knew the thoughts that were running through his mind.

"He's a great guy, you know, he's got money but he doesn't flaunt it. He doesn't need to work, but he still does. Why're you asking?"

"He died." McGee stated, watching as the petty officer's jaw dropped.

"Well, how?" He asked after a long pause.

"We do not know yet." Ziva shrugged. "A month ago, you and petty officer Woodson were caught fighting. What was the disagreement about?"

"It was nothing, really." He laughed and shook his head.

"Why don't you let us decide that?"

"There was this girl. He met her first; I took her out, not knowing. It really was nothing, we resolved it."

"By killing him?" Tim looked at him.

"He was my friend. He was a good person, I would never kill him."

"What do you know about Jell-O?" Ziva asked.

"Er, it's a gelatin based dessert food…"

"What about warfarin?"

"It's a blood thinner? Look, what does this have to do with Ryan's death?"

"There are connections." Ziva said.

"We may need talk to you again." Tim nodded as he and Ziva began to leave.

"I am sorry for your loss." She bowed her head and turned to follow her colleague. The petty officer hurried after her and grabbed her wrist. She stopped and glared at him and he let go.

"Hey, um, I'm just wondering, would you like to go out for dinner with me tonight, because, well, you're really hot." He grinned.

"Er, I think that is inappropriate." She grew uncomfortable.

"Oh, well, maybe when you've finished with the whole investigation thing, then could we maybe go for dinner?"

"I am engaged." She held her hand up.

"Well, you sure about the guy, because you might change you mind?"

"I am pregnant." She frowned at the young man's determination.

"Ah." He froze. "So that's a no, then?"

"A definite no." She nodded. "But thank you for the offer."

* * *

"The traffic is bottle-nosing." Ziva said into her phone as she sat in the car.

"Bottle-necking." McGee said, looking over from where he sat at the wheel.

"What?" She removed the phone from her ear.

"Bottlenose dolphins."

"What do dolphins have to do with the traffic?"

"The traffic is bottle-necking. Getting narrower, like the neck of a bottle. The dolphins are bottlenose." He smiled and she frowned and shook her head, returning to the call.

"There has been an accident, all the traffic is being forced into one lane." She sighed. "Tell Gibbs that it will take us a while. We are nowhere near the accident site yet."

 _"How did you find out then?"_ Tony asked.

"It was on the radio. They are forcing three lanes into one."

 _"Why can't you tell him yourself?"_ Tony's voice crackled down the line.

"Because I am not stupid, Tony." Ziva laughed. "I will see you when we get back."

 _"I love you."_

"I love you, too." She smiled.

 _"Tell the Probie to drive safely. Tell him that if anything happens to you I will hunt him down and kill him. Tell him…"_

"Tony, I will drive safely. I always do." Tim said as Ziva held the phone to his ear.

 _"Oh, hey McProbie. Make sure that you do."_

"We would be at a grater risk if were Ziva driving."

 _"Good point. Just don't let her take over."_ Tony warned.

 _"Elf-Lord, what d'you find out?"_ Gibbs asked.

"Er, Merston and Woodson were friends, it was a dispute over a woman." McGee sighed.

"Please can I have my phone back, McGee?" Ziva held her hand out, smiling when he passed it over. "Tony, my driving is not so bad that we would be in any danger, in fact I would say that my driving is safer than all of yours."

 _"That so, David? Way I remember it, you almost killed Tony and McGee the first time you drove back from a crime scene."_ Gibbs said, and she could hear him raise his eyebrows.

"Well, I…"

 _"There anything else you found out about Woodson and Merston?"_

"Woodson was a good man, Merston is a, uh…"

"Player?" McGee suggested.

"Yes, a player. Merston is a player." Ziva sighed. "He asked me to dinner."

 _"What d'you say?"_ Gibbs smirked slightly.

"I said no." Ziva said loudly.

 _"Good."_ He hung up. She shook her head and closed her phone leaning her head back as the car crept forwards.

"We could be back by now if I had driven."

"Ziva, people driving like you is the reason that accidents happen, and why there are traffic jams." Tim yawned.

"My driving has never… My driving has only cause one large scale accident." She grinned.

"You've probably caused more, but you had probably sped away before witnessing the aftermath."

"That is not true." She glared at him and sighed as he turned the radio back up so they could hear the sit-rep of the traffic. "I told you we should have taken the exit a mile back."

"And then we would be lost."

"At least we would be moving." She snapped, hitting the radio button to silence it.

"And that's better?"

"It is better to be moving forwards than not moving at all, McGee." He winced at her tone.

"Sorry." He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Are there any more exits before the accident that we can take?" McGee closed his eyes and his shoulders slumped. "No, then."

"We could play eye-spy. To keep us occupied, you know." He looked at her, her angry face. "Or maybe not. How's the moving house going?"

"We cannot decide whose furniture we want to keep. Tony says that since his is new we should keep his bed; I have had my sofa since I moved out of my parents place. Neither of our tables goes with the new dinning room." She tilted her head to the side with each piece of furniture, like watching a tennis match.

"Why don't you just buy a whole new set of furniture? One that matches the house and that you both like?" McGee asked.

"Because that would be too easy, McGee." She retorted. He put his hands up in defence.

"You'll be happy once you're moved and it's all sorted." He smiled.

"I know we will, McGee." She growled at him. He sighed and lapsed into silence, knowing it was going to be an even longer car journey.


	29. Chapter XXIX

**I apologise for my short absence. I do not know what happened, I just did not feel motivated to update this, although I did upload a few one-shots and another chapter of Everything Starts Somewhere.**

 **I have been working on another one-shot, which is possibly why I have not updated this, that is getting to be very long (Word count of 4214 so far and still nowhere near completion). However, I still do not know if I like it enough to upload it and if it will be worthwhile, or whether I should just keep it for myself. I guess I will have to finish it before I even think about uploading it anyway, but look out for that if it arrives.**

XXIX. While I Thought I Was Learning How To Live, I Have Been Learning How To Die.

"Hey, it's like, five AM, where you going?" Tony asked as he walked through to Ziva's living room and looked over at her through the forest of cardboard boxes. He frowned as she laced her running shoes up.

"It has been over a month since I have been for a run." She shrugged. She had had another sleepless night, not that she wanted to admit it, after another nightmare. She wanted to run, to clear her head. "The snow has cleared."

"It's still icy." Tony shook his head, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I have run in much worse weather." She looked at him and sighed. "Tony, I will be fine."

He bit his bottom lip and ran his thumb across her cheekbone. "I just don't want anything to happen to you. You understand that, right?"

"Of course I do, Tony." A smile spread across her face as she reached up and brushed her lips against his. "But you still want to come with me, yes?"

"You can see right through me." He laughed.

"I always have been able to, Tony." She grinned. "Do you think you will be able to keep up with me?" She called as he walked back into the bedroom to collect clothes.

"Well, you might need to slow your pace down slightly, but you are pregnant and as you said, it's been a while since you've run, so I think I'll cope." He poked his head around the doorframe and grinned.

"We shall see." She chuckled and shook her head.

* * *

"I like this whole 'get up early and run' thing." Tony said as they walked upstairs from the showers in the NCIS gyms. "Makes me feel all awake and alive."

"That's what coffee's for." Gibbs said as they walked through.

"Hey, where's McGee? We haven't been here before him in, well, a long time." Tony sat at his desk, stowing his bag in its usual, accessible place as Ziva did the same.

"Well, you're early today." Gibbs looked at his watch. "Tony, McGee printed a list of all of petty officer Woodson's recent calls from his cell and home phones. You and Ziva divide them up and go through each call. Follow any lead you can." He placed the file on Tony's desk and walked out of the squad room, heading up the stairs to the directors office. He smiled at Cynthia's empty desk and pushed through the doors to Jenny's office.

"Jethro. What is it that I need to sign off on now?" She smiled, looking up from the report she was writing.

"Who said anything about signing off on something?"

"Your expression." She smirked.

"Jen, what happens when Mossad want Ziva back?"

She placed her pen down, her smile fading. "At the moment Eli David seems to tolerate her being here, but I don't know what's going to happen when he wants her back. I don't even know if, when that happens, there'll be a way around it." She sighed. "This is what I worried about when I first recommended the position. I feared that something would make her not want to leave."

"Trust DiNozzo." Gibbs shook his head.

"We can hope that Mossad never ask for her back."

"And when she marries Tony and they renounce their claim to her?" They stared at each other.

"Then we have a problem. Without her being Mossad liaison, we'll have no position for her."

"What about her becoming an NCIS agent?" Gibbs asked, leaning forwards.

"She would need to be a naturalised citizen. It takes time, Gibbs. And stress. Not something either she or Tony need."

"So we get them to start filling out paperwork now, and don't get them to start filing it until absolutely necessary." Gibbs shrugged and stood up, walking to the door.

"And what if they don't want that?" Jenny smiled.

"Then they can deal with it themselves." He shrugged and stood up, walking out of her office and leaving the door open. He stood on the balcony overlooking his small squadron as Tony started a paper aeroplane race between he and Ziva, chuckling to himself. Even marriage and kids could not get them to grow up. A paper projectile hit McGee in the temple as he walked through and both other agents stifled grins as he glared at the woman who launched it at him. All three pairs of heads turned to look up at him as he whistled a sharp ear-splitting noise, walking down the stairs and into their team area, eyebrows raised. "You're late, McGee."

"Only by two minu…" He trailed, knowing that arguing was pointless. "It won't happen again, boss."

"That's what you said last time, McProbielicious." Tony grinned, his smile falling when Gibbs turned his stare to him. "Um, Petty Officer Woodson made numerous calls to different numbers for an…" He paused as he looked at his notes.

"Alan Dodge." Ziva piped up.

"Well go talk to him, then." Gibbs looked at them as if they should have been able to guess.

"Yeah, there's the catch. He phoned a lot of different Alan Dodges trying to look for a certain one and we don't know whether he found the Alan Dodge he was looking for. It's a surprisingly popular name."

"Find him." Gibbs shrugged. "Gonna go talk to Ducky."

* * *

"Ah, Jethro. This case is very interesting." The Scotsman had a wide grin spreading across his face.

"Let me guess, it reminds you of the food they gave you at boarding school?" Gibbs raised his eyebrows.

"No, that's just my point. It doesn't remind me of anything."

"Well, now you'll have a story to tell the next time you serve Jell-O." Gibbs shrugged and smiled slightly at his older friend before getting down to business. "How'd he die, Duck?"

"It's worse than I thought." The smile faded from Ducky's face. He nodded over to a table with the petty officer's lungs lying open on it. He held up a piece of the gelatine substance and looked at his colleague. "His lungs were filled with the same jelly that incarcerated him."

"He drowned in it. Why didn't he just swim to the surface?"

"My guess is he was pushed in just before it set, when it was at a thick, gloopy consistency. His clothes were pulling him down and the sticky dessert was too viscous to allow him to swim to the surface. It must have been a very painful way to go."

"Why'd he look like he was smiling in the pool?" Gibbs asked, staring at the solemn face of the dead man.

"The Jell-O bent the light, from the angle we were standing at his warped features looked happy." The duck man sighed, and leaned down to the height of the petty officer's head. "Yes, you did not have a peaceful death at all. But of course, you know that. You were there."


	30. Chapter XXX

**You know, this honestly was not supposed to last for so many chapters, or at least it was supposed to go faster. I was going to have two or three chapters for each month of their lives for maybe two or three years, but I got a bit carried away. I was going to have finished this by now.**

 **I am sorry. So, so sorry.**

XXX. Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean They Aren't After You

"So, someone drowned our petty officer in a pool of Jell-O that was stolen from a warehouse under surveillance from the FBI." McGee said as he, Tony and Ziva stood facing the plasma.

"Why is it that we always end up cleaning up the FBI's mess?" Tony grumbled.

"Because that's all you are, DiNozzo. The janitors of the crime investigation world."

"Slacks." He turned around, glaring at the man sitting on the edge of Ziva's desk. "Get off her desk."

"It's Sacks and I want to hear it from the lady herself." The FBI agent grinned.

"Ok." Tony chuckled as Ziva stormed over and pushed him back, putting slight pressure on his throat.

"Get. Off. My. Desk." She squeezed tighter momentarily before releasing him. He staggered away from her desk slightly and rubbed his neck.

"You gonna control your kids, Jethro?" Fornell asked as they stood watching and four sets of eyes turned to stare at them.

"Kids?"

"Sorry, did I say kids? I meant agents?"

"Officer David is not an agent, Tobias." Gibbs shrugged, flicking his eyes across to Ziva quickly and smiling slightly before looking back to his friend. As much as he hated to admit it, he agreed with Tony: Agent Sacks was a slime ball. "Besides, I don't wanna get on the wrong side of a pregnant Mossad officer." He murmured the last part to Fornell so Ziva couldn't hear.

"Jethro." Fornell sent him a warning glare.

"What have we got so far?"

"We have run down every Alan Dodge on the list he had already called, none of them have any connection to petty officer Woodson." Ziva walked back over to the plasma screen.

"We're trying to find any other Alan Dodges that he didn't get round to phoning."

"The calls stopped December 22nd." McGee chipped in.

"Fits with Ducky's estimate of the time of death." Gibbs looked between the three of them. "Tony, Ziva, go talk to the security company who fitted Woodson's security system. McGee I want you to find Alan Dodge." They all nodded, accepting their orders. "Tobias, I want to talk to the agents who screwed up."

"They were drugged, Jethro, they didn't screw up."

"One mistake already. They were drugged. I want to know if they made any other mistakes."

* * *

"So you fit the security system into Ryan Woodson's house, Mr Tonswell?" Ziva asked as she and Tony stood in the doorway of the small, pokey office. There were filing cabinets stuffed to the brim with papers and piles of paper littering the floor. The sandy coloured walls gave the room a dingy feeling, not aided by the single dim bulb hanging from the ceiling.

"Yeah. I don't know what I can really do for you." The man shrugged. He was sat behind the heavily laden desk, the horizontal plywood looking about as stable as a newborn lamb.

"Woodson had money, why'd he come to you for security?" Tony looked at him, his eyes narrowing.

Tonswell ran a hand through his hair and looked about shiftily, before studying the two characters in his officer in more detail, taking in every slight movement the two government agents made, every breath they took. "You have to swear on your lives that what I am about to show you will not be leaked anywhere, that you will not reveal anything you see to anyone that does not have a true need to know."

"It depends what you're about to share, but we will arrest you if you withhold evidence." Tony shrugged. The man behind the desk deliberated some more before standing and nodding to close the door. They complied, Ziva's eyes meeting Tony's for a beat before going back to scan the room. He took the removable webcam off of the top of his old computer monitor and hit a clip, letting it fall open in his palm to reveal no technology but a small metal key that he inserted into the door of the storage cupboard. He walked through and indicated for them to follow, which they agreed to hesitantly. They waited as he punched a security code into an electrical lock before he turned to them and grinned. The heavy door swung open, revealing a warehouse full of monitors, all on.

"This is McGee's heaven." Ziva whispered to Tony as they were lead down the metal steps from the small entrance balcony. There were ten men dotted around, each focused on the screens they were working with.

"What is this place?"

"We have the most high tech security systems in the country." He spread his arms.

"Why all the coat and dagger?"

" _Cloak_ and dagger." Tony winced as she glared at him and the owner chuckled.

"We provide security for some of the most important agencies and people in the country. The cover of being a small security provider who doesn't really get much business and really is nothing more that a locksmith keeps us protected. These men all live in the building which houses the office, they're all registered as unemployed. Their families don't even know that they work here."

"Paranoid much?" Tony frowned.

"We don't even own this warehouse. The door up there doesn't even exist. Just because we're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after us. And they always are." He walked over to the closest man. "Ted, these NCIS agents want to know how someone got into Ryan Woodson's house to kill him."

"He's dead?" The man named Ted asked, looking up from the motherboard he was working on as it lay on the desk in front of him. His eyes fell on Ziva and he smiled. "Hi, Ted." He held his hand out to shake hers.

"Yeah, hi." Tony snapped his fingers in the man's face. "How'd they get into the house?"

"He asked us to take the system on his place down a few days. Everything is controlled from here." Ted's gaze began to wander up and down Ziva's body.

"Eyes front, soldier." Tony snapped his fingers again.

"Why would he want you to take the security system down?" Ziva asked, ignoring Tony's increasing irritation with the man.

"Well, if he was meeting a woman and he didn't feel he was in any danger then he would ask us to take it down. There were a lot of cameras in his house." Ted chuckled. "He said he would tell us when to turn it back on, and he never did."

"Tell me this, Teddy. Why'd Petty Officer Ryan Woodson need such high tech security?"

"I, err, never asked. It was never in my purview to ask." He shuffled from foot to foot.

"Can you tell us why?" Ziva turned to Mr Tonswell.

"Remember that paranoia thing I mentioned earlier, that's all I know."

"If you've got such a good cover, how'd he find you?"

"Said he had a contact in the CIA. That said contact confirmed his story."

"Does this contact have a name?" Ziva glared at the men who had all started to notice her.

"I can't divulge any more information than I already have."

"Then can you ask your men to stop boogying me?"

"She means ogling." Tony said.

"Yeah, we don't get many women down here." He shrugged and whistled, signalling for all the men to scurry off back to their work. "Particularly as good looking as you." Tonswell smiled.

"You said some of them had families? Can they not _ogle_ their wives?"

"None of them are married. They don't have the time. They may have mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters, but aside from that their only family is each other. I'm sure that you can understand that." He nodded between the two of them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tony grumbled at the accusation, even if it might be true.

"You two are at least sleeping together."

"Says who?"

"The way you're possessively protective of her." The owner of the security company shrugged and smiled. "I trained as a psychiatrist before starting this place up."

"Hm. I would not quit the job."

"Day-job. Don't quit the day-job." Tony whispered in her ear.

* * *

"Can you teach me to cook?"

"What?"

"To cook. Can you teach me?" Tony looked across the squad room to Ziva.

"Why do you want to know how to cook?" She frowned as he walked over and sat on the inside edge of her desk, facing her.

"What happens when you're too tired to cook dinner or you're away on a case? I don't want my kids eating takeaway all the time."

"I agree." She smiled weakly, ignoring his point about being away on a case. It was something she had thought a lot about. She was an NCIS agent. They both were. Staying late was a regular. It was a requirement. It was how cases were solved. Their jobs put them in the line of fire on a daily basis. And they were going to have two children. What would happen if one day neither of them came home? She bit her lip. "Tony, I need to go to the head." She pushed passed his legs, running towards the women's room and locking the door behind her, not even bothering to check the room was empty before sliding down the wall and putting her head in her hands. They had not thought any of this through. They could not be parents. What _was_ going to happen when they went away on a case? What happens when a suspect tries to go after their family? But NCIS was her life. She had been through the Israeli army and Mossad, but even though she worked with blood relatives in both of those careers, she had never become attached to those jobs like she had her position at NCIS. She had had as much as a social life as her previous jobs had allowed, but at NCIS it was her co-workers who were her friends. Her family. She barely reached the closest stall before emptying her meagre stomach contents into the toilet. She was glad the bathroom was empty – this was weakness that nobody should witness. She moved back to the basin sluggishly, splashing her face with water and rinsing her mouth out. She could never leave her job at NCIS. She could not even bring herself to think about taking a desk job. She would be bored out of her mind. And Tony would not be able to live without being sat at his desk every day; going into the field and throwing jokes about like a Frisbee. It was their life and neither of them would give it up. Neither of them could. She inhaled, another wave of nausea hitting her at the thoughts speeding through her brain. Her breath was shaky as she stared at her white knuckles clenched to the ceramic edge of the sink, not moving as she heaved into the running water, nothing left but stomach acid. The door rattled as someone tried to get in.

"Ziva? Tony's worried about you." Abby's voice drifted through the locked door.

* * *

She ran past him, suddenly looking very pale. He didn't know what was going on. She had been fine only seconds before hand. "Hey, DiNozzo! Where'd Ziva go?" Gibbs asked, slapping the back of his head to knock the glazed-over expression off of his face.

"Huh? Oh, head." He pointed to the ladies room. "She, uh, she didn't look great." Gibbs glared at him. "What? I didn't do anything!"

"Apart from getting her pregnant?" McGee asked as he stood behind Gibbs.

"Well, yeah, so I did quite a bit, but nothing today! I swear!"

Gibbs frowned and for once believed his senior field agent. "You think she's okay, DiNozzo?"

"It's probably just morning sickness." He sat down. At her desk. Gibbs and McGee frowned but said nothing, letting him worry about Ziva in his own way.

"It been this bad?" Gibbs walked up to him.

"No."

"It should be getting better."

"I know." He whispered.

"You gonna go check on her?"

"I don't want to push her. She doesn't like being seen ill. Makes her think she's weak." He looked up, throwing a scrunched ball of paper as he caught McGee straining to hear what he was saying.

"You tried telling her it doesn't make her weak?"

"She's an assassin, boss. You think I'm stupid enough to try and tell her being ill does not make her weak?"

"So you've already tried."

"She chucked me out of the apartment." He stared at his boss as the older man laughed. "My apartment. It was raining!"

"She let you back in again?" He raised his eyebrows.

"An hour and a half later." He mumbled grumpily. "Hey boss, how 'bout you try telling her she's not weak?"

"I'm not stupid, DiNozzo." The silver-haired man laughed and walked back to his desk.

* * *

"Hey guys. Where's Ziva?" Abby bounced in, grinning from ear to ear.

"Can you get high on Jell-O fumes, 'cause Abby's sure as hell close." McGee looked up from his computer screen.

"She's in the head." Gibbs said looking up from his notebook.

"Been in there for… almost an hour. Boss, I'm really worried now."

"Yeah." He stood up and walked over to the centre of the squad room, McGee and Tony joining him and Abby. The boss-man held out four black pens, the lids covered by his hand. "The one with the red cap has to go and check on her." They each picked their pen and all unfurled their hands at the same time, showing three black lids and one red. In McGee's hand. He felt the blood drain from his face and his breathing increase.

"I'll go, McGee." Abby grinned, placing her hand on his shoulder and pecking him on the cheek, leaving the outlines of her lips marked in deep purple on his skin. She left the three men staring at her. "She's not that scary." She chuckled under her breath before trying to open the locked door. "Ziva? Tony's worried about you." She tried to listen for any signs of life, hearing a slight shuffling but nothing else. At least she was alive. "Open up Ziva. We're all worried. Even Gibbs is, though he won't admit to anything." She heard more movement. At least she was conscious. She hoped. "You're not the only one who knows how to pick a lock." She bluffed, knowing how to pick the lock on a pair of handcuffs, and only a pair of handcuffs. "Ziva, please, the director won't like it if I knock the door down."

"I am fine, Abby." Ziva's voice barely travelled through the plank of wood blocking Abby's path.

"You don't sound fine. And you've been in there for an hour." Abby listened to the movement again. The lock clicked and Abby waited to give Ziva the chance to move out of the way before bursting in. She hurriedly looked around the room, finally spotting Ziva slouching against the wall next to the door, her legs seeming to be about to snap with weakness. "You don't look great either." Abby bit her lip. Ziva looked pale and drained, her skin clammy and cold as Abby laid her hand on her forehead to take the Mossad officer's temperature. "I'm calling Ducky." She pulled her phone out and hit speed dial three, ignoring the protests of the woman who had slipped down to sit on the floor. "Ducky, Ziva doesn't look so great…the women's room...she's all cold and sweaty and she looks really pale…I dunno, Ducky, but she left the squad room an hour ago to come here and Tony said she didn't look great then…just get up here quick, Ducky." She snapped her phone closed and crouched down in front of Ziva, chewing on her lip as the brown eyes in front of her looked pitifully back.

"I am fine, Abby." She murmured quietly, her eyes closing as she leaned her head against the wall.

"Hey, stay awake. Ducky's coming." Abby said nervously, wishing for the doctor to hurry.

"Tony." It was more of a breath than a word, her lips not moving.

"He'll be here as soon as Ducky gets here."

"Abigail, what's wrong." The pathologist stood in the doorway, the three male agents gathering behind him.

"Don't call me…I dunno, she just sort of…" Gibbs pulled her back as Ducky crouched down beside the woman.

"Tell me she's not gonna die, Duckman. Tell me she's gonna be alright." Tony stared at his fiancée, her body limp.

"Call an ambulance, McGee. Get her to a hospital, then I'll tell you if she'll be alright, Tony." He breathed, going through his motions, the ones learnt at med school that he never forgot. _Like riding a bike_ he said to himself, for once realising that his comment would be unappreciated.


	31. Chapter XXXI

**I feel I have left you waiting on the edge of a cliff for long enough now. I think the suspense has built sufficiently.**

XXXI. It Is Only A Problem If It Has A Solution.

He couldn't sit still. How could he, when no one would talk to him? He just wanted to know what was happening. He just wanted to know that she was going to be all right. She was his life, and she was lying in a hospital bed and nobody would even talk to him. He couldn't live without her. He couldn't face the idea. She was everything he wanted. He could live without every other luxury, if only he had her. There couldn't be a higher power cruel enough to take that away from him could there? Of course there could. That is what higher powers do. On his third lap of pacing around the waiting room he spotted Ducky walking through the doors. "What's going on? What's happened? Is she all right? What's wrong?"

"Anthony, calm down." Ducky placed his hands on the younger man's shoulders and guided him to a chair. "When was the last time you saw her eat?"

"I dunno. I guess I made her breakfast this morning."

"But did you see her eat?" The doctor pushed.

"Well, I guess she had a few mouthfuls, but I had to have a shower. I just thought she ate it."

"So when was the last time you actually saw her eat something?"

"She had a salad for lunch yesterday. Ducky, what's going on?"

"How has she been sleeping lately?" He ignored the younger man's questions.

"She's been sleeping later. What's going on?!"

"She hasn't been eating enough. She's exhausted." Ducky sighed.

"And that's it? All that's wrong is that she hasn't been eating and sleeping?" He watched the pathologist look away. "What aren't you telling me? Are the twins alright?"

"They're going to be alright." He smiled.

"Ducky, what aren't you telling me about Ziva?!" He yelled, attracting glares from others in the waiting room.

"She has a cold."

* * *

"Ducky says you haven't been sleeping." Tony walked into the room and sat in the chair next to the hospital bed. The private room was dimly lit as she sat in bed propped up by a pillow doubled over to give it more bulk, an IV drip in her arm. She looked like she was about to make something up, but after seeing his expression, the hidden anger, she decided against it, blowing her nose to hide her face as she answered.

"I have been having some nightmares." She said quietly and sniffed.

"Why didn't you wake me? Talk to me about them?" He was seething, but not at her. He could never be angry at her. He was angry with himself for not noticing. He should have noticed.

"Because they are nothing."

"If they are stopping you from sleeping they are definitely something." He had to restrain himself from shouting.

"I have always had them. They have just never taken such a toll though."

"Well, you are using a lot of your energy to grow two kids." He sighed. "What about the eating?" He nodded to the drip supplying her with nutrients.

"I am not hungry. Food makes my stomach spin."

"Turn." He muttered, correcting her without thinking.

"What?"

"Turn. Food makes your stomach turn."

"What is the difference?"

"Well, heads spin. Stomachs turn. It's just the way the world works."

"The world makes no sense." She pouted.

"So, you were saying food makes your stomach _turn_."

"I just cannot face eating anything. It makes me feel sick."

"Then why didn't you just tell me?" He stared at her, his hand finding its way to hold hers. She mumbled something unintelligible and he frowned, trying to understand it before giving up. "Louder, Ziva. I don't have bionic hearing."

"Because I am not weak." She mumbled slightly louder. Tony sighed and looked at her face, the pain it had caused just to say those five words.

"I know you are not weak, Ziva." Why couldn't she understand that being ill, or scared, or upset did not imply weakness, only that she was a human? They had been through it so many times. "None of this makes you weak, it makes you a person. With feelings." He sighed. "And I know you have feelings. You have so many feelings."

"If my father saw me now he would disown me." She muttered, not listening to what he was saying.

"Ziva, your father cares only about results, only about getting the job done, not about the heart inside you." He stroked her hair back from her pale face and his heart shattered inside his chest at her sunken eyes and he traced the dark circles outlining them with his thumb. "How did I not notice this?"

"Because I am good at hiding it." She shrugged, hating how much she had hurt him. She wasn't even entirely certain why he was hurt by it all. It wasn't as if he had put her in the hospital bed. "It was not your fault."

"It was, Ziva. I love you, I should have been able to see that you were ill."

"I am not ill." She protested.

"Ducky says you have a cold." He watched as she fell back on the bed, a petulant expression on her face. "The doctors say they want to keep you here until they are happy that you are doing okay and the babies are fine. Which means at least a week."

"What about work?"

"It means you get time off work." He laughed. "You're lucky."

"Gibbs is going to blow a basket." She looked at him.

"I'm sorry, what?" Sometimes her pick-a-mix of idioms were simply too garbled to be untangled.

"Blow a basket. You know, lose his temper?"

"You mean 'blow a gasket'." He laughed and shook his head. "No, he understands. The director on the other hand is already pushing for you to take early maternity leave. Starting imminently." He watched as her face fell in horror and smiled.

"Tony, I cannot spend almost a year not working."

"Don't worry, I've plead your case. Gibbs is on the waiting room balcony yelling at her as we speak."

"The waiting room has a balcony?"

"I know, snazzy hospital." He chuckled as the first smile tugged at her lips.

"Snazzy?"

"Yeah, you know, cool." He shrugged and laughed as she shook her head. "And, your room has a really nice view." He pointed to the window, turning away from her slightly. "Please tell me when things are wrong in the future. I want to be able to help."

"And what if you cannot help? I believe you Americans say 'A problem shared is a problem doubled' and I do not think that two need to worry over something that I can worry about fine on my own."

"It's actually 'a problem shared is a problem halved'." He smiled softly, looking at their entwined hands. "And I worry more when you don't tell me about things."

"You do not need to worry about me, Tony. I promise you, I am fine."

"Which is entirely why you are lying in a hospital bed with a drip feeding you nutrients. You are fine." He said, unable to keep the thick sarcasm from his voice. "I just want you to be able to talk to me. We're getting married, Ziva. You have to talk." She sat in silence, studying his face.

"My parents never talked. I barely remember them even saying two words to one another each day." She whispered quietly. "I do not want to be a bad parent, Tony."

"And you won't be." He smiled. "Neither of us will be."

"But we both love our work."

"And we'll find a balance." He shrugged. "Every problem has a solution."

"And every solution has a problem." She muttered.

"But then there will always be a solution to that problem, and as the solutions get smaller, so will the problems. Everyone has problems that they have to deal with. That's what family's for."

"Very philosophical." A voice said from behind them and they both turned to stare at the nurse standing in the doorway. "Sorry for listening in." She walked in slightly slightly. "The doctor wanted you to eat something solid, no arguments." She placed a tray of assorted foods on the table next to the bed.

"I am not hungry." Ziva stated, turning her nose up at the food and switching to breathing solely through her mouth to avoid the smell.

"You have to eat something. Doctor's orders." The nurse said quietly, her mousey shyness strangling her voice.

"I do not want to eat anything!" Ziva yelled at her. The nurse scurried off, taking the tray of food with her, and Tony sighed. She really could be scary when she wanted to.

"Ziva, come on. Please."

"The smell makes me feel sick." She said shakily and he could see the tears glistening in her eyes, threatening to overspill.

"I know, baby. I know." He murmured as he shifted from his chair to sit of the edge of the bed. He wrapped his arms around her as she leaned into him, burying her head in his t-shirt as he rubbed her back gently. He swung his legs up onto the bed next to hers and leaned back slightly. "I wish you had told me." The few tears that he had managed to hold in since he had seen Ziva on the bathroom floor slipped down his cheeks and onto the top of her head.

"If you won't eat, Miss David, I will have to ask Mr DiNozzo to leave." Ziva's doctor said as he walked in, a stern look on his face.

"The food makes me feel sick. I do not want to eat." She growled at him, although Tony noticed that her voice had grown weak again.

"You're not going to get better if you don't eat. And you're not leaving here until you get better. If banning all visitors is what I have to do to get you to eat, I will." He shrugged as she glared at him, laying back in exhaustion. "Mr DiNozzo, I have to ask you to leave."

"I'm not leaving her." He moved closer to her slightly and gripped her hand tighter.

"Then I will just have to call security. Please, I want her to get better as much as you do, and if this is the only way then this is the way that it has to be." Tony sighed, relenting. The doctor had a point. He bit his lip and looked down to his fiancée who was silently pleading with him not to leave her.

"I'm sorry, sweet-cheeks." He pressed his lips to her forehead, wiping away the tears that began to dribble down the side of her face. It hurt him to see how truly helpless and vulnerable she looked as she lay in the hospital bed, the blue and white gown she had been issued too big and the thin hospital sheets doing nothing to keep her warm. She looked like a child, frail from a debilitating illness. How had he not noticed how bad the morning sickness had been? As she had said she was good at hiding her discomfort, but he still should have seen it taking a toll on her. He should have noticed her waking through the nights with horrifying dreams. He should have noticed her not eating. He should have been able to see her fade. But he hadn't. All he had seen was the beautiful, strong woman waking slightly later than normal. Love had blinded him. He was kicking himself. He should have seen it. He looked up, not realising that his feet had taken him to the waiting room, his gaze meeting that of Gibbs.

"How is she?"

"The smell of food is making her sick. They've told her she can't have visitors until she eats something." He looked to Tim, Abby, Ducky and the director as they stood a few paces behind Gibbs. They all wanted to see their friend, their sister, niece, daughter when she needed them most and he was telling them they couldn't. Abby ran over and flung her arms around his neck, strangling him in the biggest 'Abby hug' she could muster.

"Oh, Tony. Is she gonna be alright?"

"I hope so, Abs. I really, really hope so." He swallowed, looking to Gibbs.

* * *

He walked through the door, smiling slightly at her grumpy expression and placing a paper bag on the chair. "I am not allowed visitors."

"Didn't get that memo." He shrugged and walked over. He found the sight of the strongest woman he knew reduced to lying in a small white bed with a drip connected to her rather hard to stomach. It amazed him that all that was really causing her discomfort was two tiny bundles of cells. Two tiny bundles of cells that in a few months would be humans and he had no doubt that she and DiNozzo would love with all their hearts. "Thought you would be bored." He nodded to the bag as she reached over feebly and removed items from it, smiling weakly as she tried to figure out who had sent what. A crossword book – Ducky. An iPod of with songs that only one person she knew listened to on it – Abby. A handheld game console and a driving game – McGee. A book on how to play chess – Palmer, maybe? A photo album of pictures of the team from crime-scenes and places around the Navy Yard that she frequented, a note in the front reading _so you can remember your way around when you get back_ – Jenny, judging by the handwriting. And last, a pile of DVDs. No points for guessing who sent those.

"Thank you." She smiled, running her fingers over a picture in the album of the whole team together at the Christmas party the year before. She missed them. Three days with only seeing doctors, nurses and a psychologist who wanted to talk about her nightmares was doing her head in. Of course, she had refused to talk to the psychologist, and she was rather nonplussed when one of the nurses brought her a pot of Jell-O to try and eat. Cherry of all flavours. Her mind flickered back to petty officer Woodson and the case. "Have you caught the killer yet?"

"Officer David, you're off duty. All you need to think about is getting better."

"So that is a no."

"Yes. How's the getting better going?"

"The doctor said that as I get closer to and then further into the second trimester, the morning sickness should start to fade." She shrugged. "I can eat things if I cannot smell them, but that is very limiting. They gave me some rice yesterday, and that was not so bad, but I still felt queasy."

"You know, what ever your father told you, being sick is not a weakness. It doesn't mean that you're admitting defeat."

"Then what does it mean?"

"Means you're strong. It shows a lot of strength to open up, to tell someone what you fear, to tell someone what's wrong."

"My father would disagree."

"Ziva, you're father didn't raise you to be a human. He raised a ruthless killing machine. You have a chance to start again now, prove him wrong. Be strong Ziva. Talk to Tony about your nightmares. Tell us when you feel sick. Tell us when you're in pain." He – a man of very, very few words – managed to string a couple of almost eloquent sentences together as he pleaded with her.

"Gibbs I am sorry for taking time away from work."

"Don't apologise, or I will call you weak." He said sternly. "It's not the last time you'll be taking time off."

 **The last paragraph might seem a little out of place now, seeing as it is set three days after the rest, but it might make slightly more sense when the next chapter is uploaded (And more importantly finished – whenever that will be). It was just something I was playing about with, and I am not certain that it worked, so just be patient with your criticism of how confusing it is until after you have read the next chapter. Not that any of you are ever critical in any way other than constructive (Of which I am always grateful for).**


	32. Chapter XXXII

**I know nurses are not weak and are not just there to follow doctors orders, I just think Ziva can be quite…intimidating when she wants to be. Just want you to know that.**

 **I am not sure I like this one so much.**

XXXII. I Like Nonsense; It Wakes Up The Brain Cells.

"Is this working? Hey, McGoo, is this recording?" Tony waved his hands in front of the lens.

 _"Is the green light on?"_

"Yeah."

 _"Then it's recording."_

"Oh, right. Hey Ziva, are you bored yet?" He flashed his trademark grin. "You probably are, which is why we've decided to put a little bag of entertainment together." He was sat at his desk, staring straight into the camera lens. "Okay, so I know you were expecting to watch 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' when you put the disc in, but I promise you this will be much better. The rest of the disks are like this as well, just in case you were thinking of changing to another film, so it wouldn't make much difference." He shrugged. "So, I was thinking that you were probably missing hearing all of our voices and seeing all of us whilst you are in isolation, which I know you hate, but it is to get you better. It was my idea. This first one is just me, then on the others we can go and talk to the rest of team Gibbs. You know, it's odd, isn't it, how we refer to it as being team Gibbs, when Abby and Ducky and Palmer actually work for the rest of the agency as well, and the director is really Gibbs' boss, which means that if she's on our team it should really be called team Shepard. Or team Jenny. I think team Jenny sounds a bit better, don't you? So I was watching Kindergarten Cop last night, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pamela Reed and Penelope Ann Miller. Good film, you seen it? I tell you what, when they release you, we'll watch it…" Ziva smiled as he started going on about the film. She would never admit it out loud, but she really had missed hearing his voice. Tony spent fifteen minutes explaining the plot before a hand, most likely Gibbs', appeared on screen and hit the back of his head. "Ow! What was that for?"

 _"Ziva won't want to hear you drone on about a film that she probably doesn't care about."_ Gibbs' gruff voice barked at him.

"Right you are, boss. So, I guess you want to hear about the case, don't you? Well…" The video cut to Tony sat in a dark hole. "Okay, I'm sat under my desk 'cause the boss man turned the camcorder off when I started to talk about the case 'cause he said that you weren't allowed anything to stress you out and that most definitely included work. But I know that you are probably going out of your mind, and so I'm gonna tell you and you have to promise that if you think it is going to make you stressed out to hear about it then stop the recording and change to one of the other discs. Is that clear?" He paused and then continued. "Okay, so McGee found a whole load of money changing hands, but it wasn't being moved in big quantities or anything and it wasn't all going to the same account, or at least it wasn't at first, but all the accounts that the money was going into were then transferring the money into one big account, under the name of, you're not going to believe this, Alan Dodge. That sounded a lot less anti-climatic in my head. Maybe if he had a cooler name or something, something more dramatic… Anyway, the address listed for Alan Dodge was actually a PO box, so McGee and Cassie are staking it out. Oh, did I say that Cassie, remember Cassie Yates right, well she's here temporarily whilst you're out of action. Don't worry, she's not using your desk, I wouldn't let her – she's at the desk behind the McGook, the one that you were at first. So anyway, McStakeout and Cassie are staking out the PO box to see if anyone will turn up, though I highly doubt it. Oh, and Gibbs interviewed the two FBI agents who were drugged and apparently they ordered pizza and someone must have slipped it in there. Agent 666 is following that lead which means that he's keeping out of our way. I don't think the boss likes him – which I guess is understandable considering he did send me to jail when I was framed and he did set every government agency after you when you went on the run…" Ziva yawned as he continued talking about the case, going off on tangents as he didn't really add any knew information. She let herself drift in and out of sleep, Tony's voice blurring out of focus and creating a wordless lullaby.

* * *

The heavy thud of Abby's loud music leapt through the speakers as Ziva hit play on the next disk. "Miss Sciuto, the camera is rolling, what do you have to say to my dearest darling Ziva?"

"Hiiiiii!" Abby ran over and squealed, her face large on the big screen. "Ooooh, so I had a major brainwave earlier when I was signing to Gibbs because Sacks was down here and I really don't like the man. So anyway, I remembered that infants can learn to sign faster than they can learn to speak and so me and Gibbs could teach you sign language so that you can communicate with the babies before they can talk!" She grinned and bounced around. "How useful would that be? Then you won't have any of the problems with not knowing what's wrong, will you. It will make your life so much simpler." She started adding actions to her words.

"You know, I don't think that would be too bad a idea, actually Abby." Tony said and turned so both of them were in shot of the camera. "We should think about that, 'cause it would be really helpful and it will also mean that I would be able to know what Abby and Gibbs are saying when they're talking about me."

"I'll start teaching you as soon as they release you!" Abby grinned. "It's gonna be so much fun."

A knock sounded on the hospital room door and Ziva muted the film. The doctor walked through and looked up at the screen and to the stack of DVD cases on the player. "Did you put the last one in on your own?"

"No." She lied, her momentary happiness quashed immediately.

"Ziva, I told you that you had to stay in bed." He sighed. She was just too stubborn for her own good. "How would you feel if something happened to your babies because you weren't following my orders?"

Tears sparkled in her eyes. "How dare you insinuate that I do not care for them? I love them and I would never hurt them!" Her voice was venomous as she recoiled slightly, bringing her knees up to her chest in the bed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, I just meant that you need to be more careful." He sighed, wishing he could convince the nurses and orderlies that officer David was really not going to kill them if she didn't like what they were saying, but he was honestly unsure if he believed it himself. "I brought you some crackers and rice to try and eat." He held out the tray. She eyed it suspiciously, but seeing as she could not smell the food and was unsurprisingly hungry she did not protest.

Too much.

The doctor watched her eat, taking each mouthful slowly and frequently having to stop. It was progress. She managed to keep the plain, unappetising food down. Crackers were on the _safe_ list now. "Ziva, I want you to talk to somebody about your troubles sleeping. Actually talk to someone. I've found a new psychologist."

"I do not have trouble sleeping." She replied almost on instinct. He sighed and rubbed his face, tired. He was supposed to have finished his shift an hour ago, but he had stayed to try and help the woman in front of him.

"Okay, but I still want you to talk to someone."

"I will as soon as you let me out of here."

"No. Not the way it works." He shook his head and looked at her sympathetically. She could see real emotion in his eyes, not just the fake stuff she'd seen professionals put on to make it look like they care.

"Do you have trouble sleeping, doctor?"

"Sometimes." He smiled softly. "It helps to talk about the nightmares, you know. They don't get better, but it feels like you're not carrying the weight of them around with you so much." He placed his hand on her head gently, in a similar way to the way that Gibbs so often did when she wasn't feeling herself and left. The doctor resembled Gibbs in other ways too. There was the obvious silver hair and the stern expression, but also the caring look in his eyes. The way he carried himself. She glared as a woman walked in and smiled at her.

"I'm Dr Sinclair, but you can call me Helen." She smiled and sat down. "How are you feeling?" Ziva maintained a silence worthy of applause – where the applause not to ruin the silence. "I understand you've been having a touch of morning sickness?"

 _No, I find sitting in a hospital bed unable to eat fun._ Ziva muttered internally, externally _keeping as quiet as a doornail – no, that was dead as a doornail… Dormouse? Quiet as a dormouse? No church mice. Quiet as church mice_ was the expression she was looking for.

"Your doctor also says that you've been having some trouble sleeping. He said you've been waking up screaming."

 _I scream because I love seeing the mental images of my friends' dead bodies._ The sarcasm of her thoughts increased a notch.

"Miss David…"

"Dah-veed." She corrected, verbally this time. "I would have thought you would have done your research before you came to talk to me."

"I did. I even wrote it down, look…" She held out a clipboard for Ziva to see. "I just forgot. We all slip up sometimes."

 _Not me._

"Even you. But you're not here because you've done something wrong. You're here because you are unwell."

 _Am not._

The psychologist sighed at the heavy absence of noise. "I'm not leaving here until you tell me about one nightmare. That's all I want, one nightmare."

 _Get comfortable then, because you will be waiting a long time._

"Ok. Let's talk about your team. Your boss is Director Jenny Shepard."

"No, my boss is Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs." She hadn't meant to say anything aloud, but it had slipped out before she could stop it.

"Alright, and your teammates are Agents McGee and DiNozzo." Ziva nodded cautiously, uncertain where the line of questioning was headed. "Do you get on well with them?"

"Again with the homework." She muttered.

"Ah, yes, your relationship with Anthony DiNozzo. I was going to come onto that, but I wanted to know how you got on with them as partners."

"They are my family. I would do anything for them."

"But your father is the director of Mossad, an organisation who has loaned you to NCIS, if you shall excuse my callousness."

"My father has no part of this."

"It must be hard."

"No, my father does not care for me. He is ashamed."

"It is my belief that he visited recently, yes?"

"He was outwardly caring, but I could feel how ashamed he was. Deep down."

"Does he feature in your nightmares?"

"No." She shut that line of inquiry down.

"Okay. How about we talk about Agent DiNozzo. You're getting married. Have you set a date?"

"Not yet."

"I understand he was doing a lot of undercover work last year, even had to forge a long-term relationship with a suspects daughter, a miss Jeanne Benoit?"

"Yes, although I do not know what this has to do with anything."

"You were close before he took that mission, were you not?"

"We had grown closer, yes."

"And all of a sudden he was seeing another woman and you were pushed aside. How did that make you feel?"

"It did not. She was just a mission."

"In hindsight you may tell yourself that, but during that period of time, had I asked you and you responded truthfully, what would you say?"

"I would not." She played with the bed sheets, trying to ignore the woman across from her.

"How did that mission end, might I ask."

"This is classified information. I cannot divulge this information."

"You can talk about Tony's car."

"What about it?" Ziva feigned ignorance, trying to escape the question.

"You watched someone blow it up, believing that he was inside. You watched as one of your closest friends, the man who goes on to father your children, was blown up. You couldn't stand to watch as your colleague replayed the footage."

"Who told you that?"

"Agent McGee. Is that what you dream about? Tony not coming home?"

"I dream about the explosion. I dream about none of what I have being real – just being a fantasy I created to cope with the absence."

"The absence of Tony?"

"Yes." She had been compelled to talk, she couldn't stop herself. It wasn't that it made anything feel better. She didn't really know why she was talking.

"But he's alive. And he loves you."

"I know. And I do not deserve his love." Her voice was solemn.

"I don't know about that, Ziva. I think you do. You've saved so many people. I was talking to your boss earlier, Director Sheppard, and she was saying that you helped two little girls recently."

"Elsie and Mina."

"Apparently they want to see you. And Tony wants to see you. And so do Abby and Doctor Mallard and Agent McGee. They all want to see you get better." Ziva looked at the clock at the bedside and frowned – they had been talking for two hours. She yawned. "You need to sleep." Helen smiled softly. "I want you to talk to someone whenever you have a nightmare. No matter what time it is, there will always be somebody who cares, whether it is Tony, or Agent Gibbs or even me." She handed a business card over. "All of my numbers are on the back. Call me if you need to, at any time."

* * *

"You alright?" The junior doctor sat down across the table from his mentor and smiled.

"Yeah, I guess. Just tired." He looked up from the folder in front of him.

"Your shift ended three hours ago."

"I know. I was staying for a patient." The older doctor stretched before taking a bite of his apple and returning to the paperwork.

"Good plot?"

"Hm?" He looked up again at the younger man. He was wearing scrubs and looked so young, too young to be a doctor. It made him feel old. Worn out. He was thinking about retiring. Maybe he could. Just as soon as he got Miss David back home and healthy. "Oh, medical records." He shrugged.

"Whose?"

"The patient I'm staying for."

"She hot?"

"Who says they're a she?" He laughed.

"Because you look tired and I wouldn't stay three hours past the end of my shift for anyone but the most beautiful of women." The sandy haired man joked.

"She is…" His old mind tried to think of the appropriate way of phrasing his statement. "Not unattractive. She is also pregnant and engaged." He laughed again at his mentee's reaction. "She's been through a lot. For some reason I can sympathise."

"Ah, she's having nightmares. Am I right?"

"Patient confidentiality."

"I'll take that as a yes then." He grinned. "You imparted your great wisdom on the matter to her?"

"I've tried. She's listening to the psychologist now."

"Talking."

"What?"

"You said she was listening to the psychologist. You're supposed to talk to them."

"I doubt she'll talk. She's been trained to keep her mouth shut." He smiled slightly.

"You waiting for her to finish?"

"Yeah." He nodded just as the green clad junior doctor's pager beeped and he groaned.

"Sometimes I really hate this job." He groaned and stood up.

"Me too. But it's all worth it in the end."


	33. Chapter XXXIII

**XXXIII. People Discuss My Art And Pretend To Understand It As If It Were Necessary To Understand, When It Is Simply Necessary To Love.**

"McMonet, if I leave you and Abby to do this room, will it end up with skulls and spiders and other weird things covering it or will it be perfect?"

"It will be perfect, Tony. We know how much this means to you." Tim nodded and looked at the scribbles of drawings Tony had given him.

"And you remember to use solvent free paint?"

"Tony, we have everything under control. It's gonna be fine." Abby hugged him in what he reckoned was supposed to be a reassuring manner but really only served to make breathing a really big issue. "Go and sort out the furniture." She rotated him and pushed him into the first floor landing area. She turned back to McGee and grinned. Her pigtails seemed even more…bouncy today and she was wearing old, washed-out jeans and one of Gibbs' oversized NIS t-shirts, one she had borrowed when she had redecorated her apartment and covered in paint. Tim was dressed similarly, although the NIS t-shirt was replaced with an old button down shirt. They surveyed the empty room with the blank walls.

"Where do we start?" McGee looked to Abby as she walked over to one of the walls and started sketching poppies onto it.

"You can start with the stars on the ceiling." She pointed up and then to a stepladder. "Then you can help me with the forest on the other wall."

"Don't you find it strange that Tony is gonna be the first one of us to settle down and start a family?" Tim said after a moment of silent sketching.

"No. Not really?"

"You don't?"

"Well, I'm not ready to settle down, are you?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Tony is, McGee. I think he has always been the most likely."

"Abby, Tony's idea of commitment usually means a four week fling."

"You really thing that, McGee?"

"I've seen the proof. I've had to listen to him go on about it for years." McGee looked at her incredulously.

"That's not the real Tony, McGee. Much like the ice cold killer isn't the _real_ Ziva. Inside they're people, with feelings and emotions."

"If you say so, Abby." He said sceptically, turning back to the ceiling and outlining another constellation of stars.

* * *

"Tony!" The little girl squealed and ran into his arms.

"Hey, Kiddo. How're you doing?" Tony picked her up and spun her around.

"Good." Elsie grinned. "Where's Ziva?" He sighed and sat on the park bench with her, nodding to Alison and Dave as they hung back with Mina.

"Ziva's still not very well." She gasped in horror. "She's gonna be fine, though. She's just at the hospital for a little bit."

"Does that mean we can't see her?" The child's voice was small and despite Tony's reassuring eyes, she had a hard time believing she was going to be okay.

"For now." He smiled sadly and picked up one of her small hands. "Elsie, I want to ask you a very serious question, and I want a very serious answer."

"Alright." She nodded solemnly.

"When we saw you last, you said you wanted to live with us."

"And you said we weren't allowed."

"I know. But life is all about compromises."

"Yes. What is a compromise?"

"It's kinda like going for something in the middle because no-one can decide on just one thing." He tried to explain.

"I have to compromise a lot when Mina's upset." She nodded and Tony grinned.

"I'm sure you do."

"What are we compromising?"

"Well, I have been talking to a lot of people."

"What about?"

"You and your sister. But, I realised the one person who I really need to talk to was you."

"Why?"

"Because it concerns you." He ruffled her hair. "Would you still want to stay with us even if we had to compromise a bit?" She looked at him, wondering whether he was tricking her.

"How much compromising?"

"Well, me and Ziva have to work, don't we?" He looked at her.

"Yes."

"So, we only get weekends off every couple of weeks, which means that you can't live with us full-time."

"Mmhm."

"But, how would it be if every couple of weeks you and Mina spent the weekend with me and Ziva?" Elsie looked up at him, uncertain, and then grinned.

"You mean it?"

"You will have to share a room with Mina, are you alright with that?"

"If I can stay with you and Ziva it's fine." Her smile was the widest he had ever seen it.

"Yeah. Abby and McGee are painting your bedroom right now."

"Can I see it?" She started bouncing up and down on his knee, laughing.

"When it's done you can." He picked her up and they walked across the park to Alison and Dave. Tony placed Elsie down and she ran over to the swing-set.

"So she's happy with the arrangement?" Dave asked, handing Mina over.

"By the looks of it." Tony laughed, pulling funny faces at the infant in his arms. "Hey, baby." He stroked the soft tufts of blond hair on the top of her head. She gurgled and stuck her little pudgy fist in his mouth. "Is that so?" He removed her hand so he could talk and smiled at her uncoordinated waving. "Shall we take you to have a look at cots? Would you like that?" He kissed the top of her head and grinned when she squealed with delight.

* * *

"I like this one!" The child ran over to the next bed.

"Elsie, you said that about the last five." Tony sighed as Mina started to fuss in his arms. A couple across the displayroom glared at him as the baby began to wail and he tried to soothe her. "What's wrong, huh? You hungry?" He cooed.

"I'm hungry, Tony." Elsie pouted.

"Well, the sooner you choose which bed you want, the sooner we can go and get lunch."

"I think I like the first one best." She bit her lip and he tried not to groan.

"Okay, the first one it is then." He turned to the assistant who had been trailing them round. "Can I get the first one that we looked at sent to my house please?"

"When would you like it delivered, sir?"

"When's the earliest?"

"Three hours." The assistant droned, as if reciting from a script.

"Can my friends sign for it, they're gonna be there and I'm not?"

"That is fine. It was just the bed and the cot?"

"Yes."

"If you'll just come with me sir and we can fill out the paperwork." Tony nodded and took Elsie's hand, following the assistant to the checkouts.

"I'm still hungry."

"I know. We'll go for lunch once I've completed this paperwork."

"How long will it take?" She complained, pulling on the straps of her dungarees.

"I don't know, Sweetheart. I'll get through it as quickly as possible." He sighed. He filled out the paperwork he was handed as quickly as possible whilst keeping Mina in one arm and making sure Elsie stayed in his line of sight. He should have taken up Gibbs offer to help.

"These friends that are signing for the goods, what do they look like so we can tell the delivery drivers?" The assistant took back the papers.

"One of them's a Goth – dark hair, tats, quite energetic. One of them's an old Scottish man – he'll talk you to death and then do your autopsy if you let him. One of them's a youngish nerdy looking guy who probably looks scared half to death, and the last one's an older gentleman with silver hair, a glare that makes you wish you'd never have been born and a headslap that really smarts." He grinned. "Are we all done here, 'cause they're hungry?"

"Sure. We'll deliver them within the next three hours." He nodded and Tony sighed in relief.

"Okay, kiddo. Where do you want to go for lunch?"


	34. Chapter XXXIV

**After almost a month of working on this chapter you would have though that I would have been able to come up with something better than this, but I just could not get the words to flow like they normally do. So instead I have been working on some small multi-chaps like 'A Life Worth Living' that I will write up completely before I even think about considering posting them. I think I have started three, so look out for those if they do ever reach the final stage of development.**

 **Anyway, I really only like the first part of this, the rest is really nothing special, but I felt that it was not getting any better, if anything it was getting worse the more I wrote, and I feel it has been too long since the last update, so I will start working on the next chapter immediately and hope that it will be better than this one.**

XXXIV. A Day Without Laughter Is A Day Wasted.

"Tony, I just want to go home." She sighed, her eyes closed as he drove.

"I know." He smiled softly, watching her out of the corner of his eye. She had just been discharged and she seemed, although not one hundred per cent, definitely better. He stopped the engine and smiled as she looked up at the brick walls of the townhouse, recognition flickering across her face. "Welcome home." He helped her out of the car and led her up the steps to the front door, producing a key from his pocket and pressing it into her hand. "Would you like to do the honours?" She smiled widely and slotted the key into the lock, letting the door swing open to reveal the fully furnished entrance hall and stairs leading to the two other floors and the attic.

"When did you move in?" Her voice was quiet, shocked.

"I haven't technically moved in. Everyone just helped me put all the rooms together. I wanted to wait for you."

"Why?"

"It seemed wrong spending the first night in our new house without you by my side." He wrapped his arms around her shoulders from behind and nuzzled his face into her hair. "Come on, I'll give you the grand tour." He grabbed her hand and guided her gently into the kitchen. "Okay, Abby said that she fully stocked the fridge this morning and…" He opened one of the overhead cupboards to reveal boxes upon boxes of herbal tea. "Ducky has spent the whole week sourcing and organising your very own cupboard of naturally caffeine free teas of nearly every flavour your heart could desire." He pointed, a game-show-host voice loud and booming in the quiet house. He showed her the rest of their rooms, pointing out things like the photo frame Gibbs had made with a picture of the whole team and the table that Kate's bowl sat, the goldfish swimming happily around. He led her up the stairs to the first floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom, pulling her to the first of the three doors. "Okay, so after a lot of talk with Gibbs, Alison and Dave, Elsie and Mina's social worker, Elsie and Mina themselves, we have devised a little plan." He grinned and opened the door to a bedroom painted with a field of poppies leading onto a forest. A single bed stood on one side and an ornate crib opposite. A bookshelf and chest of draws was next to the white cot.

"Tony, what is this?" Her voice cracked.

"We have custody of Elsie and Mina on our weekends off. This is their bedroom." He smiled as her face broke into a grin and she turned around, hugging him so tightly he reckoned Abby had some contest.

"Thank you." She whispered as she rested her head on his shoulder, her energy suddenly drained again.

"Come on. Sleep. You can see the rest of the place later." He scooped her up and carried her up the second flight of stairs and into their bedroom, laying her down on the new bed he had spent an age deciding whether to buy and pulling her boots off. He left her in the gym clothes she had worn on the way home from the hospital, knowing full well that she would be awake in a few hours and wanting a shower, it being half three in the afternoon and he didn't want her to get too chilly. He climbed into bed next to her and she immediately wrapped her arms around him curling into his side. "Welcome home, Ziva."

* * *

Her eyes fluttered open and for the first time in almost three months she wasn't overcome with the sudden nausea as she awoke. It was dark outside the bedroom window, a bedroom window she was unused to. She was lying in a bed she was unused to with covers that she was unused to and wall colours she was unused to. It took a moment for her to realise she was in the new house, their new house. The house she and Tony owned together. As the disorientation faded she started to look around, take things in about the room that she hadn't noticed when Tony had carried her through…last night? She looked to the clock. 1900. She highly doubted that she had slept for 28 hours without waking. So he had carried her through three and a half hours earlier. She looked up at the soft pale blue fabric draped over the canopy of the bed. The wall with the head of the bed against it was a rich burgundy colour and the other three walls were an eggshell blue colour. The bedspread matched the blue walls and the carpet was cream. All of the furniture was a dark oak. A door on the left led off to the en suite, she remembered that from when they had visited, and the door in front of the bed led out onto the second floor landing. The room was decorated elegantly and Ziva was unsure whether Tony had done it by himself or not. She slipped out of bed carefully, treading lightly to the door that led to the landing. She heard the noise of music floating up from downstairs as someone clumsily played a piano. She followed the noise into the lounge smiling at Elsie sat at Tony's baby grand, hitting the notes that Tony pointed to. Neither of them noticed her presence as she watched from the doorway, a smile playing on her lips as the two of them laughed, Tony shushing her when her laughs got to loud. Ziva walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing a soft kiss to the top of his head.

"Hey." He said softly and looked up, trying to pretend that he didn't jump. She leaned her chin on his forehead. "Did you sleep well?"

"Better than I have in a long time."

"Good." He covered her hands with his as they clung to the front of his shirt. "The girls wanted to come over and see that you were alright as soon as I phoned to tell them that you were coming home."

"And I am very glad that you did. I have missed seeing you both." She tousled Elsie's hair.

"Are you feeling better?"

"I am, thank you for asking." She started to pick the six-year-old up.

"Woah, woah. No, Ziva, you're not carrying her around."

"Tony, I am fine. Really."

"No. I don't want to see you or the babies getting hurt."

"I don't want to hurt the babies!" Elsie started crying, the noise setting Mina off as well. Ziva sighed and glared at Tony as she carried Elsie over to the sofa and sat her down, scooping Mina up off of the play-mat that she was lying on.

"You are not going to hurt the babies, Elsie. It is all right." She rocked Mina in her arms and continued to glare at Tony as she paced around the lounge. He just stood by the piano, not wanting to do anything that may result in him angering Ziva any more. "Tony, could you take Mina into the kitchen or upstairs or outside or something whilst I calm Elsie down." She looked at him and he just gulped and nodded, taking the young infant and walking out to the sunken garden at the back of the house, grabbing a blanket for the child on his way. "Elsie, you would not have hurt the babies or me…" She wrapped her arms around the child as she cried.

"I don't want to hurt the babies!"

"And you will not."

"Then why did Tony say I would?"

"Tony was just being overprotective. He is scared that something will happen." She let Elsie cry, her face buried into her t-shirt.

* * *

"Hey." Tony shuffled through to the living room, Mina sleeping in his arms. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been like that."

"You were just worried. It is fine." She kissed his hand as he sat next to her. "I am sorry for ordering you about."

"You were taking control of a situation. It's one of the thinks I love about you. And hey," He tapped the top of Elsie's head. "I'm sorry I shouted at you. I was just…"

"Being overprotective." Elsie finished quietly. "I would never hurt Ziva or the babies, Tony."

"I know, Sweetie. I know. I just worry, okay?" He tousled her hair. "What can we do to cheer you up?" The child deliberated for a second before grinning.

"Cupcakes!" She sat up on Ziva's lap.

"Okay, I think we can make some cupcakes." Tony smiled. "I'll just put Mina in her cot and then we'll go into the kitchen."

"I can do that, Tony. I need a shower anyway." She kissed him softly and took Mina from him, smiling as she nestled her head into the crook of her arm.

"Okay. You remember the way?"

"Mmhm." She nodded.

"I have the baby monitor with me, so you don't need to bring it down."

* * *

She smiled as she turned the water off, the sound of laughter drifting up from the kitchen. She pulled a pair of jeans on, realised they wouldn't do up, threw them across the room and looked through the wardrobe for something that would fit. She groaned when she realised that even her cargo pants were to tight. She would need to go shopping. Maybe she could ask Jenny to ask Cynthia to get what she needed. She did not want to have to go shopping. She grabbed a pair of Tony's jogging bottoms and pulled the drawstrings tight before taking his Ohio State hoodie and pulling it on. She smiled at her reflection in the full-length mirror and turned to the voices of Elsie and Tony. She gasped at the sight of her new kitchen. There was flour and cocoa powder and sugar and cupcake mixture everywhere. She sighed at the sight of the two responsible grinning sheepishly.

"We made you an extra special plain one!" Elsie held it out on her palm.

"Oh, thank you Sweetie." She walked over and smiled. She reached up and wiped a glob of mixture from Tony's forehead and licked it off her finger. "Tastes good." She pressed her lips to his. And pulled back suddenly.

"What's wrong? You feeling okay?"

"What is the date today?" She looked at the clock that read half seven.

"December 31st. New Years Eve." He smiled; glad that was all that was troubling her. "Everyone's coming over at eight, kind of a new years eve meets new house meets welcome home thing, but if you don't feel up to it I can cancel."

"No, it is fine." She looked down at what she was wearing. "Do you think they will mind that this is all I am wearing? I could not find anything else that fit besides the clothes I came home from the hospital in, and they are barely an improvement."

"Ziva, they won't care a bit." He kissed her and wrapped his arms around her. "But I am very interested in this 'Couldn't find any clothes to fit.' I would quite like to see why none of your clothes would fit." She sighed and pulled the hoodie up, revealing a small, noticeable bump. "Hey! Look at that! That wasn't there before!" He pressed his lips to the skin of her stomach twice. "My two little babies! Hey, Elsie, come look at this!" He pointed.

"Why's it bigger?" She pressed her ear to Ziva's tummy.

"Because the babies are bigger." Ziva smiled. "And they are going to get bigger." She grumbled.

"So big that they won't fit any more?"

"Soon, yeah." Tony chuckled and picked the little girl up. "We need to get you cleaned up and ready for everyone to come round." He began tickling her. "Do you want to do bath-time or rest?" He smiled at Ziva.

"I want to tidy the kitchen."

"No, two options, bath time or rest."

"Are you going to tidy the kitchen if I do bath time?" She narrowed her eyes sceptically.

"Yes." He smiled proudly. "It will be spick and span before you know it." Ziva narrowed her eyes and muttered something sounding very much like 'likely story' but took Elsie's hand and headed back upstairs.

* * *

Tony smiled proudly to himself. He had just finished tidying the kitchen as the doorbell rang. He went to answer it, pulling it open to see Abby, Tim and Cassie. They all burst into fits of giggles when they saw him. "What? What's so funny?"

"Oh dear. Tony, I thought when you said tidy the kitchen you meant everything in it. Including you." Ziva walked down the stairs carrying Mina, now awake, in one arm and holding Elsie's hand with the other. "Go on. Go have a shower. I know how to entertain." She waved to the gathering crowd on the doorstep.

"Oh, I know you know how to entertain, but I thought that was between you and me…going for a shower, Boss." He winced as his head collided with Gibbs hand. "Hey, Boss, do you get a sort of callous on your hand from where you keep hitting my head so frequently or do you use a lotion or moisturiser or…? Shutting up, Boss." He headed upstairs.

"I do apologise for him." Ziva smiled. "Come in." She waved them through to the living room.

"Aaahhhh, Ziva, we've all missed you so much!" Abby jumped up and down, barely restraining herself from throwing her arms around the woman, managing only by thinking about the child in her arms. "How're you feeling?"

"I feel well, thank you." She smiled.

"It's been quiet with Tony moping about the squad room." Tim smiled, his arms full of food. "Hey, Elsie, how's the bedroom?"

"It's really cool!" The child grinned and let go of Ziva's hand, running through to the kitchen. Cassie nodded.

"Cassie." She held her hand out for Ziva to shake.

"I remember." Ziva smiled.

"And who's this little one?"

"Mina." The child leaned forwards uneasily in Ziva's arm and stretched her arms out, laughing, as Ziva introduced her.

"Me and Tony made cupcakes!" Elsie said as she carried a plate through from kitchen.

"Wow! They look great!" Jimmy crouched down to be the same height as the little girl.

"Ziva my dear, how does it feel to be home at last?" Ducky handed Cassie a bottle of champagne.

"Good, Ducky. It feels good." She breathed and visibly relaxed.

"Well, we are all very pleased, and I am sure young Anthony is very relieved. He does worry about you."

"Talking about me again?" Tony waltzed through, placing his chin on her shoulder and snaking his hands around to sit on her stomach.

"No, we were talking about the other Anthony in my life." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"I always though I was special." He pouted.

"Oh, you are, DiNozzo. Very special." Gibbs muttered and rolled his eyes.

"You mean that, boss?" He grinned and looked at Gibbs face. "Oh, you didn't mean it as a compliment, did you?"

"Nope." He shook his head and kissed Ziva's cheek. "How are you?"

"Glad to be home." She leant back into Tony's arms as Gibbs took Mina from her, bouncing her and making her laugh. "And I'll be even more glad tomorrow when I can come back to work." She smiled hopefully and Jenny shook her head.

"No, Ziva. You have the next week off."

"Jen! I cannot go a whole week more! Two days."

"This is not negotiable, Officer David."

"Please Jen?"

"Fine, four days."

"Three."

"Ziva…" The director sighed at the Mossad officer's scowl. "Three days off, then you can come back."

Ziva beamed. "Thank you, Jen." She hugged the NCIS director tightly. "Thank you."

"She hasn't missed work at all." Tony chuckled, taking her hand in his and pulling her into his arms. He pressed his lips to hers and grinned. "I've missed doing that."

"Me too." She wound her arms around his neck and McGee coughed. Both Tony and Ziva glared at him.

"We've been apart for a week, McProbie, leave us alone."

"Hey, I'm just thinking of the kids. There are young eyes present."

"You are talking about yourself, yes Tim?" Ziva grinned and high-fived Tony when he held his hand up for her, creating the start of a night full of laughter.


	35. Chapter XXXV

**Okay, so according to my calculations, providing that this is set in season 5 like it most probably is and they have just celebrated New Year 2008, Ziva will have turned 25 just after Venice and before the Elsie and Mina case started. I spent a while (for an A-level maths student it took me a surprisingly, and worryingly, long time) figuring out how old she would have been if she were born on the 12th November 1979, like Coté de Pablo was, until I checked on NCIS wiki to find that Ziva was actually born on 12th November 1982, however I first read it as 1981, and so calculated her age to be a year older than she was. That means Ziva was 22 when she came to work at NCIS if we take the dates to be the date the episodes originally aired.**

 **Just some fun facts. They do not really matter, just proof that her age in this is sound.**

 **Unlike the last chapter, I had no problem writing this one. I actually had a lot of fun playing with it, and so I have it complete already.**

XXXV. And Those Who Were Seen Dancing Were Thought To Be Insane By Those Who Could Not Hear The Music.

"I've missed you." Tony nuzzled his face into Ziva's hair as they sat curled together on the couch, a film playing quietly in the background. Alison and Dave had picked the girls up earlier that evening.

"I have missed you too, Tony." She sighed sleepily, her head resting above his heart and her hand lying next to her face on his chest.

"Have you thought about any parts of the wedding yet?"

"I want to be married before the twins are born."

"I like that idea. How soon?"

"End of March? Then there is a possibility that I will still be able to find a dress that will fit me." She mumbled.

"Hey, you will look beautiful even if you turn up in jogging bottoms and a hoodie." He chuckled and kissed the top of her head.

"Do you think we can reserve a hotel in such short notice, I mean, three months?"

"Hm…well, I have already made enquiries at the Adams House…I thought you might say you wanted the wedding sooner rather than later." He grinned. "And using the influence bestowed upon me by being Anthony DiNozzo's son, I can have any date I want for my wedding. The one good thing my father has ever done for me." He muttered the last part. "So it really is up to you."

"It is up to both of us." She entwined her fingers with his. "What about our first dance?"

"I thought you might have forgotten about that element." He groaned. "You're gonna be six months pregnant, surely you shouldn't be dancing…?"

"Tony, I will be fine. I like to dance."

"I don't know…can't we just sway to some music?" He whined like a child.

"No." She sat up and pouted. "I like to dance."

"But I don't."

"And I do not like wearing dresses, but I will be." She looked at him, smiling softly and running her hands through his hair. She leant forwards and brushed her lips up, across his cheekbone before pressing kisses all along his jawbone. "Please? For me?" She murmured quietly and he whimpered slightly.

"Yes. Anything for you." She pulled back and grinned. "Aw, Ziva! That's cheating. You know I can't resist it when you do that."

"Yes. That is why I did it." She shrugged, the smug grin still brightening her eyes. "I know someone who can choreograph a dance and teach it to us. I will phone him tomorrow since Jenny has told you to stay off with me. I am honestly fine."

Tony ignored her comment about her health, not agreeing but not wanting an argument. "What about music?"

"We can talk about that once you get better at dancing."

"How do you know I'm not already good at dancing?"

"Are you?"

"Well…"

"I thought not." She grinned and pressed her lips to his, wrapping her arms around his neck and shifting so she was straddling him. "Bedroom?" She whispered, their lips breaking apart momentarily as she spoke before they replaced themselves. He stood up and let her wrap her legs around him. He fumbled for the remote to turn the TV off, carrying her out of the lounge, hitting the light switch as they left the room and he navigated their way up the stairs.

* * *

"Jesus, Ziva, you really do have contacts for everything." Tony muttered as they walked into the empty dance studio. Mirrors lined two of the four walls, the other two were painted white. The walls combined with the sprung pale wood flooring and the lighting gave the room a light, airy feel. "This place looks expensive. How much is this going to cost, just out of interest?"

"Nothing. José will not charge us." She whispered, slipping her shoes, coat and bag off and beginning a simple warm-up at the wooden barre lining the longer of the blank walls.

"Where is _José_?" The jealousy was evident in his voice and Ziva smiled at it.

"He said to warm up if he was not here when we arrived and he will be here in a few minutes." She glared at Tony when he stood staring at her, still wearing his coat and shoes. They were both wearing gym clothes, Ziva in leggings and one of his baggy Ohio State t-shirts and Tony in his NCIS gym kit. "Stop staring at my ass Tony and start warming up." She growled as she rolled down, stretching the back of her neck.

"It's a very beautiful ass, Ziva. It needs admiring." He grinned.

"Oh, I agree whole-heartedly." An accented male voice said from behind him and both Tony and Ziva turned around, completely different expressions on each of their faces. Tony's was an expression of anger, jealousy, horror and a whole mix of other emotions, whereas Ziva beamed and walked over to the Hispanic looking man. He was tanned and he had short, jet-black hair. She kissed each of his cheeks and hugged him. Tony was fuming. Who was this guy, just walking in and complementing his fiancée's ass and then kissing her cheeks?

"It has been a long time."

"That it has, Ziva. I wonder, you have heard of this wonderful thing known as a phone, have you not?"

"José, my work keeps me busy, you know that."

"I did not even know that you were in America though." He threw his hands up as Ziva chuckled slightly. Tony coughed, alerting them to his presence.

"Anyone going to do introductions?"

"José, this is my fiancé Tony." Ziva walked over to him and kissed his cheek. "I still love you, Tony. You do not need to get jealous." She whispered in his ear before pressing her lips to his jawbone.

"He was checking out your ass."

"Tony, you used to check out the ass of every woman who walked past you." She kissed him. "Come on. I want our wedding day to be perfect, and that means you learning to dance."

"Okay, but look, I don't want you to over exert yourself. You've literally just been discharged from hospital."

"Tony, you watched me each the bowl of fruit salad this morning, did you not?"

"Yes."

"And did I get a full night of sleep last night?"

"I didn't notice you waking up."

"Right. I am feeling fine at the moment. I am going to be fine." She patted his chest, took his hand and turned back to José, tugging Tony along with her.

"Everything alright?" He asked, standing up from his stretches.

"Fine. Tony." He held his hand out, keeping Ziva's clasped firmly in his other.

"So, you are getting married, yes?" The dancer grinned as he shook the NCIS agent's hand.

"Yeah."

"And you are needing to have a first dance?"

"That is what we were hoping for, José."

"Well, I will see what I can do. When was the last time you danced, Ziva?"

She laughed. "When I was in Guatemala. The last time I saw you."

"Oh, my Ziva, we were twenty. That was a lifetime ago." He laughed, for a moment lost in another time – five years ago – and another country. "How about you? Can you dance?" He looked to Tony, suddenly snapped out of his daze. Tony stuck his bottom lip out and wiggled his hand in a so-so gesture. "So that is a no then. Oh, Ziva, you do give me the hardest of missions. When is the wedding?"

Ziva bit her lip. "End of March." José visibly paled. "There is another slight…complication…"

"Oh, God." He groaned and covered his face with his hands.

"By then I will be six months pregnant." He froze. Did the maths.

"Congratulations." He smiled and hugged her. "My little Ziva is all grown up."

"I am older than you by two months."

"But you will always be a baby sister to me." He smiled. "Has she told you how we met?"

"No. She hasn't." Tony was suddenly curious, jealously all but forgotten.

"I was visiting Tel Aviv, my father was there on business, and I was walking through a market square. I was lonely, missing my friends and I was not having such a great day, and then I see this girl, my age, just dancing in the street. There was no music, and nobody was paying any attention to her, but there she was, performing a beautiful, elegant ballet routine. I stood and watched her, shocked that nobody else cared. And I waited for her to finish, handed her money and she yelled at me for watching her. I thought she was a street performer."

"The dance studio that I used to dance at was blown up. I had nowhere else to go so I found a quiet street corner and danced there."

"And after that we were immediate friends." He grinned.

"Well, I would not say that…we did not get on at all, you kept insisting we go out every night."

"And you kept saying that your father would not allow it."

"Which he did not. I was fourteen."

"The way I remember it you still snuck out every night I was there."

"I think your memory is flawed." She shrugged and turned away, the discussion over. José just laughed.

"Still as stubborn as ever."

"Are you going to help or shall I have to find someone else who will teach us to dance?"

"I doubt you would find anyone who will do it for free." He walked over to the barre and started stretching. "Especially not with the time restraints and other 'complication' as you so quaintly put your pregnancy." Tony was quite enjoying the sibling-like exchange he was witnessing as Ziva started copying José, showing her full flexibility.

"Tony, are you going to join us?"

"I don't think I can do that." He looked at the way the two dancers were contorted into an uncomfortable looking position and tilted his head.

"Try, Tony, and you may be surprised. Your body can do more than you think."

"Yes, Master Yoda." He bowed to José before hurrying to stand behind Ziva. He tried to imitate her movements, getting mild success when she turned and helped him, coaxing his body to move in more fluid motions and angles.

* * *

"You have not lost your touch." José smiled as Ziva rolled her neck and cracked her knuckles, walking into the centre of the large room.

"I still practice on the odd occasions." She smiled.

"When?" Tony frowned. He had never actually seen Ziva dance before. He had known her to mention doing a little ballet as a child, but until seeing her he hadn't realised how good she actually was. He knew she was flexible, it was hard not to, but she moved so smoothly, even when just simply warming up and stretching.

"Have you ever been down to the gym at work and it has been locked?"

"Yeah, but I thought it was just Palmer and Lee." He shrugged. "There was never any music."

"Were you not listening earlier? I do not need to have music. It is all up here." She smiled and tapped her temple.

"Photographic memory, of course." He smiled and kissed her. "My beautiful Little Ninja can dance too. Maybe I shall have to stop calling you My Ninja and start calling you My Ballerina." Ziva raised her eyebrows, hooked her leg behind his and knocking it out from underneath him, used his arm to lower him carefully, face down, onto the floor. She crouched next to him, keeping his arm twisted behind him, and moved her mouth next to his ear.

"Are you so sure of that, My Little Hairy Butt?" She purred. He rolled over, pulling her down on top of him.

"That was impressive. I'm undecided now. I think I like ninja better. Maybe if we have a little girl I can call her My Little Ballerina." Her hair brushed against his chin and her breath tickled his cheek. She pressed a quick kiss to his lips and grinned.

"We shall see." She hopped up and extended a hand for him. José had been watching with an amused expression.

"You two look good together. You have contrast, and yet you have similarities. It is beautiful to look at. Like a piece of artwork." He smiled as they straightened themselves out. "I am guessing you will be wanting a waltz. Do you have any music in mind?"

"No, not yet." Tony shrugged. "But I think it should be something original – different."

"Okay. I think I can sort something. We can sit down at some point and organise music." He smiled again. Tony noticed that the man was nearly always smiling. He was beginning to like the guy, he had an optimism that seemed to brighten the room, much like Abby but with more self control and tranquillity. "But for now, we need to think about some actual dancing."

"You mean that wasn't it?" Tony joked.

"No, do you know how a waltz works?"

"I think I should see an example first." He shrugged. His initial apprehension to let Ziva near José had dissipated when he saw how much like brother and sister they were. There was no fear of the handsome Hispanic man stealing his fiancée. José walked over to a sound system in the corner and placed a CD in the reader, turning the volume up. Shostakovich's Waltz No. 2 from Jazz Suite No. 2 started playing on the surround sound. Ziva took his hand and they began moving in time with the music, the soft rise and fall of their steps reminding Tony of a carousel. He applauded when they were finished, walking over to Ziva from where he had moved to lean against the wall so he was out of the way. "That was beautiful." He wrapped his arms around her. "Is it my turn?"

"You think you can do something like that?"

"Well, I think I can give it a go." He shrugged and nodded to José, who was moving to change the CD. Strauss's Blue Danube came on and he smiled, holding his hand out for her to take and placing his hand on her back. They started slowly as Tony led the waltz, careful to keep in time with the music. Ziva stared at him, keeping her eyes on his and he gazed back, a calm smile on his face. They sped up slightly to stay with the music and he guided her across the dance floor, staring into one another's eyes the whole time. As the music slowed to a halt he bent his neck down and caught her lips in a gentle kiss before she could say anything.

"You did not tell me you could dance." She whispered when the initial shock was gone.

"You did not give me a chance." He ran his thumb along her lips.

"Who taught you?"

"My mother insisted I learn to dance. She said it would come in handy one day."

"And has it ever?"

"It just did." He pulled her tight to him and rested his cheek on the top of her head and sighed softly. "She would have liked you, Ziva. She would have liked you a lot."

 **The quote from the title was said by Friedrich Nietzsche, who, as we all know, said 'That which does not kill us makes us stronger' and died in an insane asylum. (Except that Tony was wrong (I know, it hurts to say it!) and Nietzsche, although insane and did spend time in a psychiatric clinic, died at his sister's home under her care on the 25th August 1900)**


	36. Chapter XXXVI

**It has been a long time, has it not? I do apologise. I was ill, then depressed, then ill again. A bit more ill. Angry. Tired. Run down. Sad. Ill. Then I hit a brick wall of writer's block. And then I deleted this the first eight times I wrote it. Then I tried to write a whole load of other things. And then I deleted this again. And then I rewrote it. Delete. Left it. And then I came back to it today. And that was all in the space of a month. Sorry.**

XXXVI. If You Can Make A Girl Laugh You Can Make Her Do Anything.

"I am bored."

"You've said that eight times in the past hour." Tony groaned and rubbed his hands over his face.

"Well then it must be true, yes?"

"God, if this is what you're like when you're off for four days, I'm dreading when Jenny forces you to go on maternity leave." He sighed and opened his arms, allowing her to curl up next to him on the sofa. "How about we write a list of things that need doing for the wedding and the twins, and we make sure we do everything on the list?"

"I need to get a dress sorted."

"I need a tux."

"We need to think of names."

"Are you taking my name?"

"I want to keep mine for work, but I would like to have yours."

"DiNozzo-David, then?"

"Perfect." She leaned up and kissed him softly on the lips before replacing her head on his chest.

"Oh, I've got an idea!" Tony grinned and sat up. "There's a bookshop down the road, we can go and get baby name books! Do you want them to have Hebrew names?"

"Can at least their middle names be Hebrew please, Tony?"

"Ziva, as long as I can pronounce their names, we can call our children what ever we want." He tucked as strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled. "Come on, and we can get you some maternity clothes too whilst we're out." Ziva groaned.

"Tony, I hate shopping."

"Hear that babies? Mummy hates shopping. I think that means that it will be up to Auntie Abby to buy all of your clothes when you're older, don't you?" He cooed and tugged the NCIS sweatshirt up to reveal her small bump, pressing his lips to it twice. It had the desired effect as she jumped up and grabbed her backpack, ready to leave before Tony had even moved away from the sofa.

"Abby is not dressing my children. We will not know what they will come back looking like." Tony just laughed.

* * *

"José approves of you." Ziva smiled as they walked hand in hand out of the bookshop after buying three books. One of Hebrew names, one of Italian names and one of English names.

"What makes you say that?"

"He is helping us. If he did not like you then he would refuse to help." Tony raised his eyebrows. "It is his way of protecting me. He likes to try and protect me."

"He's a good man."

"He used to say that I was protecting the world, and he was protecting nothing, so he would protect me. I would tell him that I do not need protecting but…" She trailed off as they walked hand in hand down the street.

"But what?" Tony prompted.

"When I, uh…when I miscarried it was José that I went to. I packed a bag and drove up to Haifa. I phoned him and asked him to meet me there. He flew in from Guatemala, rented a two-bedroom apartment and we stayed there for two months. Not bothering with work or anything. When we were hungry we made food. When we needed sunlight, we would go for a walk. It was like being normal for two months. We sat and talked about the future, or in my case lack thereof. He helped me be me again."

"What do you mean?" Tony frowned, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"I blamed myself. It was not that I particularly wanted a child, no. It was just…I guess I thought that it meant there was something wrong with me, if I could not carry a child to full term. I had been given a job – to keep this child alive – and I had failed. I always complete a job. I do not fail. And I failed." Her voice caught in her throat as a lone tear slipped down her cheek.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

"José was there for me when no-one else was." She shrugged. "I trust him. And I trust you and I trust Gibbs and McGee and Ducky and Palmer. You are the only men whom I trust."

"Not all men are cruel, Ziva. We just make some mistakes sometimes."

"The good ones make mistakes, the bad ones were mistakes." She shrugged. "I think I have the best of the men as my family."

"You think?"

"Well, you have made mistakes, but I cannot imagine a better, braver and more sincere man." She stopped and pressed her lips to his.

"Oh, talking about men, I was thinking of asking the Probie to be my best man. What do you think?"

"Is there any other choice?"

"No, I guess you're right." They turned back to walk down the street in a comfortable silence. "How about bridesmaids?"

"Jenny and Abby. If I can get Abby to wear a dress."

"What colour?"

"I do not know."

"How about mint green?" Tony pointed to a family walking in the opposite direction. They had a little girl wearing a white dress with pale green stripes.

"Perfect." She grinned, wiggling her fingers in a wave when the child smiled at her.

"And I think I know someone who can make your dress." He whispered, guiding her to his car. "Now, she's a little, er, excitable, but she's real good at what she does. She made my mother's wedding dress."

* * *

Tony smiled at Ziva as she snored softly in the passenger seat of his Mustang. She looked so innocent when she slept. He sighed and shook her shoulder slightly. "Hey, beautiful. We're here." He nodded to a house in a row of other, identical, houses.

"Where?"

"To talk to the lady who can make your wedding dress." He stepped out of the car and walked around to the other side, opening her door and taking her hand in his. "Come on. She won't bite." He grinned and led her up the path to the door. It flew open immediately and a woman with bright blue hair and wild eyes stood studying them, uncertain. She narrowed her eyes at Tony and peered closer, putting a pair of wire rimmed spectacles on.

"Anthony DiNozzo? Is that you?"

"Aunt Nora." He leaned in for a hug and got hit on the arm for the trouble.

"You don't call for fifteen years and then all of a sudden you turn up on my doorstep? Your mother would be turning in her grave!" she admonished. "Now, who's this beautiful girl you've brought with you?"

"This is Ziva."

"Hello." Ziva held her hand out, but was enveloped in a hug to rival Abby.

"Oh, my. I recognise that ring." She held Ziva's left hand and looked at the engagement ring that sat on it. Both women looked up at Tony as he blushed in embarrassment.

"It was the right time. Ziva's the right woman. She would have liked Ziva. She would have approved." He spoke to the older woman, pulling his fiancée closer to him. Nora's face broke into a smile as she nodded and looked Ziva up and down.

"She would certainly have approved in looks. How about character?"

"Oh, yeah. She would have loved Ziva." He grinned.

"I'm glad you came to me. Come in, come in." She waved them through as Ziva continued to frown at Tony.

"I haven't told Senior yet, so could you…"

"Anthony, I have not spoken to your father since before the funeral. I would not start now." She glared at him and stopped at a closed door. She opened it into a light conservatory. Sketches filled the walls and fabric covered every surface. "When's the wedding?"

"End of March. Can you complete a dress by then?" Ziva spoke up. Nora just laughed.

"Plenty of time. Shirt off."

"Aunt Nora, please…" Tony groaned. "You're too abrupt."

"And I presume you have a suit ready?"

"I, well…uh, not yet, but…"

"Anthony DiNozzo, go and sort your suit out. Be back here in three hours. Go on, go, go." She shooed him out of the house. Tony mouthed an apology to Ziva before he was finally shoved out of the door. "Now, where were we? Ah, yes, end of March. Dress. Right. Any ideas?" She bumbled about, clearing some space off of a loveseat in the corner. Ziva sat down and bit her lip.

"I, uh… I have not really thought about it." She looked embarrassed.

"Okay, then…when you were a child, what did you dream about your dress looking like?"

"I never dreamt about a wedding. I never expected to marry, not after I grew up. And I grew up very quickly." She just shrugged and sighed. "Although, Tony did suggest mint green for the bridesmaids' dresses. If I can get Abby to wear mint green. She is more of a fan of black."

"Okay, well, I can keep that in mind. What about material. Oh, I think I've got just the thing that will suit you perfectly." She hurried out of the room and came back with a bulging presentation folder.

"I am pregnant." Ziva blurted. It was an important statement of fact, or at least she thought it was.

"No worry." Nora shrugged, as though it wasn't even in the top twenty things she needed to know to make the dress. "It takes my first idea off the table but I have other ideas. Do not worry, I can come up with something just perfect." She smiled warmly at her and sat down with the folder.

"Mrs…" Ziva placed a hand on the cheerful woman's arm before she could open the binder.

"Please, call me Nora."

"Right. Nora, what is so important about the ring?"

"He didn't tell you? No, of course he didn't. Poor boy, he's so shy." Ziva chuckled slightly. "I know he doesn't seem it, all that overconfidence, but he is when it comes to family."

"He can be a hard man to read." She smiled, remembering her first day working at NCIS. Saying how easy he was to read. And on the surface he was. But underneath he was like an onion, many layers. He reminded her of Gibbs in that respect.

"The ring was his mother's engagement ring. She gave it to me to give to him when she died. She was a good woman, and for Anthony to give you that ring I can only surmise that you are a good woman too."

"Well, I do not know about that." Ziva blushed at the compliment.

"I do. You know, he gets this glint in his eye when he looks at you. I've never seen it there before." Nora laughed slightly. "You're a lucky woman."

"Oh, I know." Ziva chuckled. "No. I know. I do not deserve him."

"Hm. I would hazard a guess that he says much the same thing. I doubt he believes he deserves you. He's a good man, and he wouldn't love you if you were not a good woman."

* * *

He walked up to the door and scowled when he heard loud laughter. He reached up to knock when the laugh echoed through the air again. He made his way towards the back of the house, nearing the conservatory and grimacing when another cackle pierced his ears. Tony pushed the door open to reveal the room that looked even more chaotic than it had three hours earlier. Ziva was stood in her bra and jogging bottoms with Nora taking measurements. He stood admiring her until they noticed, then stood for a moment longer, and grin on his face. "How's it going?"

"Good, just two more measurements and then we should be done." Nora smiled. "How'd the hunt for a suit go?"

"My tailor has a very nice grey one. Just needs adjusting slightly." He shrugged and walked over, pressing his lips to Ziva as Nora stepped away to jot notes on a pad. He then bent down and kissed her small bump twice. "How you feeling?"

"Good. Better now you are here. I missed you." She wrapped her arms around his neck and leant up, catching his lips in hers.

"I missed you too." His hands sat on her hips. "You know, you look good like this."

"Like what?" They still hadn't properly broken apart, their eyes locked on one another's, their noses touching and their lips brushing together as they spoke.

"Like this. Just underwear and jogging bottoms. Of course, it could always be improved without the jogging bottoms." He chuckled as she hit the back of his head. "Gibbs slap me again, David, and I might just have to…"

Nora coughed, alerting them to her presence. "Excuse me." She shoved Tony out of her way so she could get back to measuring Ziva and shook her head.

"Aunt Nora." Tony said tightly, his voice and face full of embarrassment. "I forgot that you were there."

"Evidently." She smirked. "Okay dokay. All done." She stepped back and handed Ziva her t-shirt.

"Thank you, Nora. You'll come to the wedding, won't you?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Anthony." She pressed a kiss to his cheeks and he wiped it away, much in the same way that a young boy would, making Ziva laugh. "Ziva, I'll see you in a month for a fitting?"

"Just phone with a date and time." Ziva smiled. "Thank you, for everything."

"You're family. We do anything for family." Nora smiled and hugged her. "Take care of him for me."

"I will. Do not worry." She took Tony's hand and they walked out of the house, waving as they left.

"I leave you with her for three hours and you're already best friends." Tony laughed.

"Well, she has seen me without a shirt. That usually concretes a friendship."

"Cements, Sweetcheeks."

"I still do not understand your American Idioms!" She threw her hands in the air as Tony laughed and shook his head, climbing into the driver's seat of his Mustang.

 **I really liked writing Nora. She reminds me of one of my mother's friends. I could just imagine an episode ending there on that line with the little black and white foof.**


	37. Chapter XXXVII

**Hello. Long time, no…type? I do not know the correct word that goes there. Anyway, what I was trying to say was, it has been a while. I am sorry for that. I have been busy with work and revision and other stuff.**

XXXVII. Today You Are You! That Is Truer Than True! There Is No One Alive Who Is You-er Than You!

"Ziva! Oh, my gosh, we've missed you so much!" Abby ran over as she and Tony stepped out of the elevator.

"You saw us yesterday, Abby."

"But it's not the same! It wasn't us, the team, working together! It's good to have you back, Ziva."

"Hey, how about me?" Tony pouted. "Didn't you miss me?"

"Aw, of course, we missed you, Tony. We missed you both." She pulled them both into a big hug. "But we missed Ziva more." She pulled back and grinned. "I gotta go back to the lab, but come visit me." She bounded off, sending a wave back behind her.

"Ah, it's good to be back." Tony spread his arms and breathed in. "There is one thing I didn't miss though."

"And what is that, Mon Petit Pois?"

"The orange. Bad, bad orange." Ziva laughed and took his hand, tugging him in the direction of their desks. "I'm back!"

"Ziva! How are you?" Cassie smiled and waved.

"I am well, thank you."

"It's good to have you back, Ziva."

"It is good to be back, McGee."

"Okay, that is it! I've been away too!"

"Yeah, the difference is that Ziva is less annoying than you and she was actually off on sick-leave, whilst you were just off because she was."

"I was not sick, nor am I sick, McGee."

"Right. Of course, you're not. We're just glad you're back."

"Back to work, people. Jeffry Abbotts is cooling his heels in interrogation." Gibbs grounded everyone again. "McGee, catch the lovebirds up on the case." He stormed out again, probably in search of Ducky or Abby.

"Who is Jeffry Abbotts?"

"Alan Dodge."

"Alan Dodge was an alias. Last night, whilst we were staking out the PO box, 'Alan Dodge' more commonly known as Jeffry Abbotts, comes in to empty it. Took out bank statements for Alan Dodge, showing a large influx of money. But there was also money leaving," Cassie waited for McGee to bring the details up on the plasma. "Payments to a series of off-shore accounts all registered under 'Civilisation'."

"Civilisation?"

"Yeah. Civilisation. We're trying to come up with any possible meanings, but…" McGee shrugged. "We're coming up empty handed."

"Where was the money coming from?"

"That's the thing, so far, all the accounts from which money was coming from belong to people who on paper are unconnected. They're all in geographically different locations, all have different political alliances, all have different social standings. Different genders, ages…there's nothing linking any of them."

"So…have we spoken to any of them?"

"Nope, but you're gonna." Gibbs walked back in. "DiNozzo, David, take the top half of the list, McGee, Yates, you take the bottom half. Go on. Go."

* * *

"You like being a field agent, McGee?"

"Yeah. I like meeting the people, getting away from the desk."

"You don't miss the computers?" Cassie frowned as she knocked on the door to the first of the addresses on their half of the list.

"Nah, not really. I still get to work with the computers, I just get to do other stuff too."

"And you don't mind DiNozzo pushing you round in the way he does?" Of course, Cassie knew that it was just Tony's way of showing he cared, but she also knew it could be quite uncomfortable if he shoved you hard enough. And McGee would always, in her eyes at least, be the much younger little brother who was still soft and naïve.

"No. You get used to Tony. And, I kinda miss it when he's not around." He shrugged. "It's not like he reserves it only for me. He's like that with Ziva too, and they're getting married." The door was opened by a little old lady.

"Yes?"

"NCIS Agents Yates and McGee. We have a few questions for a Mrs Ingrid Burton."

"Well that's me but I've never heard of any NCI…what did you say it was again?"

"NCIS. Naval Criminal Investigative Service. We investigate crimes in the US Navy and Marine Corps." McGee smiled.

"I'm 89 years old and I have never had anything to do with the navy. I did try and steal a pink lace negligee when I was in my twenties, but I gave it back when they caught me."

"Well, we're not here to talk about stolen lingerie." Cassie smiled. "Can we come in?"

"Oh, yes, how rude of me. I should have offered drinks. That's what they taught me in finishing school, you know, but it has been a long time since anyone has visited with whom I can exercise my etiquette." She waved them through into the old home that didn't look like it had been redecorated since at least the 60s. "Can I get you any drinks?"

"No, that's fine." McGee shook his head. "We wanted to talk to you about deposits made from your bank account into the bank account of Alan Dodge."

"I've never heard of Alan Dodge." Ingrid frowned and shook her head. "My bank account is only used to pay the home care nurse who comes around once a week and my grocery shop. I don't have any other uses for it."

"Do you know a Jeffry Abbotts?"

"No, but I do know a Jimmy Abbotts. Or is it Jimmy Abbington. Maybe his name isn't Jimmy." She frowned. "Hold on, I'll just find out for you." She hobbled out of the room and Cassie and McGee exchanged a glance. "Here we go." She brought back a leather bound photo album. "It's been a long while since I've seen him of course, oh, it must be nearly sixty years ago now. He was a lovely boy, so handsome. See, there he is. Oh, yes. Jeremiah. That was his name." She handed an old photo over to Cassie and she nodded and smiled.

"He looks like a very nice man. Mrs. Burton, did you know a Petty Officer Ryan Woodson?"

"Did? Is he dead?"

"Yes, Ma'am. I'm sorry. Did you know him?"

"No, but it is always awful when young people die."

"Yes, it is." Cassie nodded in agreement. "Have you received any strange letters, emails or phone calls lately?"

"I had a phone call the other day telling me that my email account needed renewing. I don't have an email account. I don't even own a computer. I told him that, but he still asked for some details like my date of birth and my address." She shrugged.

"Did you give them to him?"

"Well, yes. He said it was important and he was protecting me from scams."

"Ma'am, that was a scam." McGee sighed.

"But he sounded like such a nice man." She frowned. "How could such a nice man do such a thing?"

"We don't know. When was this phone call exactly?"

"Oh, it must have been just before Christmas. I think I was just about to go to Mabel's birthday celebration at the center down the road, so maybe it was the 22nd. Or was it the 23rd. They all blend together these days, you know. Monday is just like Sunday and Thursday is just like Tuesday. Adding numbers just makes it more confusing." She shook her head and McGee and Cassie nodded in agreement with very little commitment. "Would you like some tea? Coffee? I have some milk in the fridge, very good for your bones, young man. You'll need strong bones for when you're old enough to marry and have children. I have two sons, you know. One's about the same age as you. He's a good boy. He lives in Switzerland now, always sends a letter home once a month. Rosie, the lady next door, she reads them to me. Would you like some tea?"

"No, Ma'am. We need to be going. But you have been very helpful. If you remember anything else, don't hesitate to call me on one of these numbers." Cassie smiled and placed her business card on the table as she and McGee stood up.

"Oh, you're leaving so soon?"

"I'm afraid so," McGee said. "Before we go, is there anything we can get you?"

"Oh, no, no. You go and catch those criminals." She waved them out of the door.

"Reliable witness?"

"Something's telling me 'no'. I don't know what it is though?" Cassie shrugged and chuckled before sobering up. "Why would anybody want to steal from such a nice old lady?"

"She's an easy target. Why do predators ever go for the elderly?"

"Because they are usually frail." Cassie nodded. "Who's next?"

* * *

"Okay, thank you." Tony smiled and waved as he and Ziva walked down from the veranda.

"Something smells crabby here."

"I was thinking it smelt more...fishy." He looked at her and smiled.

"What is crabby then?"

"Uh, a seafood dish?" She rolled her eyes at him as she climbed into the charger.

"I thought 'Crabby' meant suspicious."

"No, it means irritable. Fishy is suspicious."

"What is suspicious about fish?"

"What's suspicious about crabs?" Tony shrugged.

"What?" She looked at him. "Nothing is suspicious about crabs."

"Right then."

"I am confused."

"Me too." Tony laughed, leaning over and pressing his lips to hers. "What is it that you think is suspicious?"

"Well, we have been to five different houses now. None of them have any connection to Woodson or Jeffry Abbotts. None of them have any connection to one another. None of them have a single motive for terrorism. None of them have motives for anything. Surely the absence of connections and motives is very suspicious."

"Like…a lack of coincidence?"

"Or maybe the lack of anything is in itself a coincidence."

"Confused again?" Tony wrinkled his brow and Ziva nodded slightly. "Yeah, me too. Come on. We can do the rest tomorrow. We'll go back to the office and write up the reports so far, then see if Gibbs will let us call it a day, 'cause I'm tired and you're looking tired." He smiled when she nodded, leaning forward and kissing her once more before sliding the key into the ignition and starting the car.

* * *

"You can come down here. I won't bite." Gibbs called out, not looking up from the piece of wood he was sanding. A cloth covered the workbench, concealing what lay underneath. He waited as she stepped carefully down the stairs into the dimly lit basement. He pulled out a carton of orange juice and two glass jars, making her laugh.

"How did you know I was…?"

"My house, Ziva. I know when someone else is in it." He shrugged as she took a seat opposite him. "Shouldn't you be home with Tony? Doing what ever it is you two do together…"

"I need to talk to you."

"That part was obvious. Tony?"

"He knows I am here. Actually, it was Tony who convinced me to come."

"He's sat in his car outside, isn't he?"

"Yes." She nodded and smiled, taking a sip of orange juice. She looked around the basement that she, and everyone else on team Gibbs, was so familiar with. "What is under the sheet?"

"None of your business. What do you want to talk about?" He narrowed his eyes at her.

"What? Your famous gut does not know what I am here for already?" She smirked, avoiding the point of her visit.

"Ziva." He warned. He could tell she was nervous, something that he wasn't used to seeing in the Israeli.

"I, uh…" She ran a hand through her hair and placed the other on her stomach. "I, um…I…" This time she stood up and cracked her knuckles, rolling her neck until it clicked. She began pacing the concrete floor. "This is, uh, difficult. I…my father, he has not been the best of role models. Or the best of fathers, really…and, uh…well, he does not exactly…approve of Tony and I. He does not approve of Tony. Period… I have no problem with this, not really…I mean, he and I, our relationship has always been…" She paused, fighting for the words.

"Complicated?"

"Yes. Complicated. But there is one thing that I cannot have because of this…one thing that I would like…" She shook her head. "When I was talking to Tony's aunt Nora, she said that one would usually ask questions like this in an invite, but I felt that there was something…impersonal about that. And also…I do not believe that there is often a need to ask this specific question, because, well, most people have their actual father walk them down the aisle, but…Gibbs, I know I am not your daughter, and I know that you had a daughter…but I just…you are the closest thing I…when I first came here, I was a different person to who I am now, and I…it is you and Tony who have caused that change…that good change…and I am marrying Tony and I was just…I mean, I hoped that maybe…uh, you do not have to if you do not want to, but I would very much like it…"

"Ziva…" Gibbs chuckled and walked over to her, placing his hands on her shoulders to try and calm her. "I would be honoured to give you away at your wedding." She breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at him. His brow furrowed and he tilted her chin up. "Ziva, you and Tony and Abby and McGee, you are all my children. I thought you knew that." She looked like she was about to argue and he placed a finger on her lips. "Blood isn't everything, Ziva."

"I thought there was an expression 'Water is thinner than blood', yes?"

"Usually the other way around."

"Blood is thinner than water?" She frowned, puzzled, and shook her head. "No, I disagree with that, Gibbs. I have seen a lot of blood in my life and I can guarantee that water is definitely thinner than blood."

"Blood is thicker than water."

"That is what I am saying."

"Ziva, the expression is 'Blood is thicker than water.'"

"Americans and their word order. Tony is always correcting the order of my words. Do they not mean the same thing?"

He paused. "Yes."

"Then why can I not say it the way I want to say it?"

"Because that's not the way it works." He shrugged and smiled. They may all say that DiNozzo was childish, but Ziva also had a streak of childlike inquisitiveness. It made for a good investigator, always wanting to know why. "And I don't agree with it anyway. Marines are my brothers, you are my children."

"And Jenny is the wife you never married?"

"You've been spending too much time with Abby and DiNozzo. Jen and I…we were never…"

"You were and we all know it. Do not deny it, Gibbs." Her smile softened slightly. "It was the reason for rule twelve, was it not? Your relationship with the Director?"

"I think rule twelve has too many loopholes for it to matter." He changed the subject. "I mean, you're marrying DiNozzo."

"Rule twelve is never _date_ a co-worker, though, Gibbs. Marriage is, as you well know, not dating, therefore there is no problem."

"But you had to be dating in the first place."

"Yes… Although, it did not start like that. It started with McGee's inability to book two rooms. Or even just a room with two beds. Can you believe that in the whole of Venice he could only book one double room?"

"No. There were other choices, that was just the most convenient and I told him to book that room."

" _You_ told him? To book a double room?" She asked, not believing a word of it.

"Yup." He grinned.

"So it is you that I have to blame that I am pregnant."

"Nope, that's all you and DiNozzo." He chuckled and pulled her in for a somewhat awkward hug between two people who are not the most adept at embraces. "I wouldn't miss walking you down the aisle for the world, Ziva."

"Thank you, Gibbs. Thank you, for everything. Thank you for sending us to Venice and making McGee book that room."

"Ah, my pleasure." He shrugged and kissed the top of her head. "Now go on, go home to Tony." She pulled away from him and grinned.

"I will see you tomorrow, Gibbs."

"Bright and early." She nodded and made her way upstairs. Gibbs sighed and sat back down, pulling the sheet off of the pieces of carved wood. He picked up the closest, one of the horizontal end struts of a crib, and started sanding the surface down, smiling to himself.


	38. Chapter XXXVIII

**I really want to wrap this case up now. My short attention span has gotten bored of the Jell-O case. I am tempted just to hand it over to the FBI and they can complete it, but I do not think Gibbs would allow that. Talking of Fornell, we have not checked up on him in a while, since chapter 30, in fact, so how about we check on how he is doing?**

XXXVIII. We Are An Impossibility In An Impossible Universe.

"I hear you and agent DiNozzo are getting married. There's gossip going around all of the major federal agencies about it." Sacks smirked as he stood in front of Ziva. She backed up against the bright orange wall behind her, trying not to grimace when he moved closer to her.

"Yes, although I do not know what business that is of yours."

"Well, I was just wondering what you see in him. You know, you're really hot, and I bet you're good in bed, and he's, well, he's DiNozzo. He's not." Sacks smirked, flicking his eyes down and tucking a strand of Ziva's hair behind her ear. "If you ever get bored of him, I'm always available." And that was all it took for Ziva's already short temper to snap. She brought her knee up, hard, to his groin, facilitated by his close proximity. He grunted and dropped to his knees, whimpering.

"If you do not leave Tony and myself alone, your ability to reproduce will be the least of your worries." She whispered in his ear before walking down the corridor and into the squad room.

"Hey, you okay?" Tony frowned.

"Yes." She nodded and smiled slightly, pressing her lips to his before sitting at her desk.

"What we got?" Fornell asked as he and Gibbs walked in. The four NCIS agents looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Well? What we got?" Gibbs asked, realising that nobody would answer the sworn enemy.

"We got a theory, Boss." McGee stood up and everyone crowded around the plasma.

"Hey, where's Sacks?"

"Er…Agent Sacks is unavailable at the moment." Ziva shrugged. Tony's brow furrowed and she smiled at him. "I will tell you later, My Little Hairy Butt."

"It's a date."

"I will bring the champagne. Or at least a non-alcoholic substitute." She grinned, smirking when she was hit, rather gently, she would admit, round the back of the head. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"Not paying attention and not keeping it professional at work." Gibbs said to her, standing between the couple. "What's your theory, McGee?"

"Uh, well, all of the money came from a scam, and all of the people who were scammed where vulnerable. Old, disabled, naïve, apart from Woodson. However, Woodson was deployed on the USS Sampson. Some of the people who were stolen from gave away details, others didn't."

"We checked the people who received no phone calls about this, found that they all had online banking accounts and email accounts that were tied together, whereas the ones who received phone calls only had online banking accounts. I would guess that someone was hacking in to the online banking accounts was using a shortcut to go through the email accounts." Cassie took over.

"Jeffry Abbots?"

"Doubtful. From looking at his computer, he didn't know the meaning of tech-savvy." Abby said as she bounded through."

"What's this got to do with Woodson?"

"Woodson was being stolen from to, but he realised it. I found a security protocol on his laptop, it recorded every time his email was accessed and documented every email that was read. He was paranoid as hell, but that makes our lives easier." Abby smiled. "Someone accessed his email from a house in Fairfax." Abby handed Gibbs a post-it.

"McGee, DiNozzo, Yates, with me." Gibbs said, moving over to his desk and grabbing his gun and badge. "Ziva, you…you stay safe."

"GIBBS!" She stared at him, already picking up her bag. "You cannot make me sit on the sidelines!"

"Yes, I can." He shrugged. She looked furiously at him and he sighed. "I promise that you can have the interrogation when we get back. Spend your time reading up on…" He squinted at Abby's writing. "Isaac Warpol. Prepare."

"Gibbs, I…"

"You are staying here, Officer David. That is final." He looked at her and she relented, pouting and walking over to her desk as the others left.

Abby bounced over. "Print off the file and come down to the lab. I can start teaching you ASL like I promised I would."

"Yes, I still do not understand why you want to teach us sign language, Abby."

"Children can learn to sign as early as six months, which is a long time before they can learn to talk." She grinned as Ziva placed the paper that had just printed into a folder. "I've never had much experience with children, but I know that mothers always say that the worst part is not know what is wrong, so if you are able to communicate with the babies, even if just with the basic things, you'll already be ahead of the game."

"Okay then. I will admit that it does sound like a good idea." She conceded and followed Abby down to her lab, preparing herself for what was no doubt going to be a long morning.

* * *

"Hey, it's my three favourite women." Tony smiled, walking into the lab to see Abby, Jenny and Ziva sat around the central table. "And how are the three most beautiful ladies in NCIS?"

"Wondering what you're wanting, Agent DiNozzo?" Jenny smirked.

"Ah, well, I need to take back my beautiful fiancée. We have an interrogation to perform." He smiled and walked over, wrapping his arms around her waist when she stood up. He pressed a kiss to her cheek, followed by another and then another as he trailed his lips down to her neck, just under her jawbone. "Mm, you taste good."

"You are a sick man, DiNozzo." She chuckled.

"I think that's why you love me."

"Is that so. I thought it was because you are so good in bed."

"Well, there is that, but…" The director coughed, reminding them that they weren't alone. Tony blushed but Ziva remained unfazed. "We're just gonna…go…"

"I would advise that, Agent DiNozzo."

"Keep it PG-13 in the elevator, guys!" Abby called after them, making the director laugh.

* * *

"We need to start thinking about sending invites out pretty soon. I've got the hotel booked." Tony leaned back in the chair as Ziva sat on the table facing him, her right foot on the edge of his chair and her left foot dangling, just short of the floor.

"I was thinking of asking Abby and Jenny about being bridesmaids some time this week. Nora said she can get their dresses ready too."

"Oh, yeah, she'll do fine with getting the dresses ready. When are we dancing next?"

"Not tomorrow night but the night after, providing Gibbs lets us go early enough."

"He will. I suggest we just charge this guy with murder. Case closed." Tony shrugged and grinned.

"I like your style, Mon Petit Pois."

"Wait?! What?! You can't charge me with murder! I didn't kill anybody!" The man sat opposite them sounded outraged. He looked like he had just rolled out of bed, which he had. His blond hair was scraggy and greasy and looked like it hadn't been washed in a week. Dark bags hung under his eyes and his skin was oily.

"Well, yeah, we might have to jump through a few legal loopholes, but I have a few judges who owe me favours and Ziva here, well, she has more contacts than everyone else in this building put together, all of whom either owe her a favour or are scared to death of her."

"Or both." Ziva said over her shoulder. "Mainly both."

"Exactly." Tony pointed up to her. She leant forwards.

"I have to go to the head." She whispered.

"Now?"

"It is not exactly my fault. I will bring back coffee."

"None for you."

"I know. Do you want anything to drink, Isaac?" She asked as she slipped off the table.

"Is this some way of leaving me alone with him so he can beat me up?"

"No, that's what we do when we want Ziva to get information out of someone and we have limited time. No, she just needs to go to the bathroom. She'll be back soon. You want anything?"

"Cola might be nice." He hazarded, still not certain that he wasn't going to be beaten to a pulp.

"Okay. I will be back soon." She smiled and let the door swing closed behind her. Isaac's eyes flew to the door for a microsecond before turning back to Tony.

"So, how come you're not scared of the scary chick?"

"Ziva?" Tony snorted. "What gave you that impression?"

"You sounded like you were planning a wedding." He frowned, confused.

"Yeah." Tony nodded and laughed. "Oh, you assume that since we live together and we're getting married and all that I'm not afraid of her anymore. Yeah, my boss, remember the older guy with the silver hair?"

"The one who didn't know anything about my computer?"

"That's the one. He has a set of rules. Rule 8 is never assume. Or never take anything for granted. It's been said both ways depending on the situation. But yeah, I would say that you should think about rule 8 when you assume that she doesn't scare me. She scares me more than anyone else I've ever met. Except for maybe her father, but then, everyone's scared of him."

"Why are you marrying her if she scares you some much then?"

"Because I love her." He stated as if it were obvious. The door opened and she walked through carrying a cup of coffee and a can of cola. "Half de-caff?"

"Of course." She smiled, placing it down in front of him. "Just how you like it."

"Perfect."

"I try." She shrugged.

"And you succeed."

"So, he tell you anything whilst I was gone?"

"Nothing useful." Tony shook his head. "If he were to tell us anything that we needed to know then I might think about not charging him with murder, but he hasn't."

"Oh, well."

"Wait! No, you haven't even given me a chance to tell you what I know!"

"You've been in here for half an hour, that's plenty of time to get started."

"But you've been talking the whole time!"

"We were just waiting for you to start. Are you ready?"

"Yeah." He nodded, looking between Tony and Ziva. "Where do you want me to start?"

 **Because Slacks really does need a knee to the groin every so often.**

 **Okay, so I do not know whether the hacking into online banking accounts through email would work, because I have never tried it, but I do know that it is most definitely illegal if it is possible. I doubt it is possible. Just do not blame me if it is possible.**


	39. Chapter XXXIX

**I know that it seems like I have been getting slow at updating recently. And technically I have. However, that does not mean that my writing has slowed down. In fact, my writing has, if anything, increased in speed. However, I have been writing up future chapters of this, chapters long in the future, that are not going to be uploaded for many, many months probably. I have also been working feverishly on another multi-chapter, which, again, will not be uploaded for quite a while. I only have half of the chapters for that one written up, and I want to get it completed, or at least almost completed, by the time that I start uploading it. But I am very excited for that one. I think it is interesting, to say the least. Ooh, maybe I could upload it as my 50** **th** **NCIS fiction. I think I can write enough one-shots to fill the block between then and now.**

XXXIX. You Know You're In Love When You Can't Fall Asleep Because Reality Is Finally Better Than Your Dreams

"This guy approached me about six months ago."

"What guy?"

"I dunno." He shrugged. He looked younger than he was, like he was only in his late teens when in fact he was 29.

"Where did he approach you?" Tony had stepped out and allowed Ziva to interrogate Isaac, seeing as she had missed out on bringing him in. He watched her now from observation.

"I was at this small burger joint, my dad used to take me there when I was a kid." He rubbed his eyes. "Look, I don't really know much about him. He just said that he needed someone to do some stuff on a computer and that I would get paid."

"How much?"

"Five hundred a month 'til the job was done, then a big sum, depending upon how well I did. I needed the money."

"How much was the big sum?"

"I don't know. I haven't finished the job yet and before you ask I do not know when I will finish the job." He leaned back in his chair and yawned.

"Do you know anything?"

"Not really. He said I had to hack into these bank accounts. Gave me a list and everything. Said they were all criminals anyway when I questioned it. And then he told me that the reason the last guy lost his job, and his life, was because he asked too many questions."

"Why did you not just turn the job down?"

"I didn't know it was going to be anything illegal that I was doing when I said yes. And when he told me, he had also told me that he'd killed the last guy for asking too many questions. Even an idiot wouldn't argue then."

"How do you receive the money?" She was getting bored of his useless answers.

"Cash put into the letterbox."

"You get $500 cash placed into your letterbox every month?"

"Yeah."

"And where do you keep it?"

"Safe under my bed."

"How…original." She sighed. "Why not a bank?"

"I've just told you that I've been hacking into bank account's and you're asking me why I don't keep my money in a bank?" He looked at her like she was stupid.

"Many criminals are not so intelligent." She gave a shrug and stood up, turning towards the door. "Have you got anything that will help us?"

"I have a phone number for him." Ziva groaned and stalked back over to him, placing both palms on the table and leaning forwards.

"That should have been the first thing you told us." She growled, pushing a pen and paper over to him. "Write. Now."

* * *

"Why don't we have security footage of Woodson's killer?" Gibbs asked as they all sat in the squad room.

"Er, because he asked for the cameras to be shut off." Tony looked up from the phone records he was trawling through. "Security guy said he would ask for them to be shut off if he was with a girl."

"Well why haven't we found her yet?!" He snapped, storming out in the direction of his favourite coffee shop.

"Right. Find the girlfriend. Any ideas?"

"The Petty Officer that we interviewed, the one who Woodson got into a fight with."

"The one who kept hitting on you." McGee supplied.

"Yes, he said that their fight was over a girl. Maybe he knows who he was with." Tony started grabbing his coat and his bag.

"Hey, Ziva and I went last time, we can go again this time." McGee argued as Ziva too started picking up her gear.

"Na-uh." The senior field agent shook his head. "Ziva's staying here."

"What?! Why?!"

"Because this guy seems infatuated with you."

"You are infatuated with me Tony. He was only flirting. Besides," she walked around her desk, meeting him in the middle of the bullpen, "you can me my handsome knight in shiny armour and fight for my love." She smirked, pecking him on the lips.

"Shining armour. Probie, me and Ziva are gonna go interview the petty officer. You stay here with Cassie and try and trace that number." His eyes didn't leave hers.

"What?! That's not fair! Just because Ziva's willing to kiss you to get her way!"

"I believe it was more the pottery that convinced him." Ziva grinned.

"What pottery?" Her fiancé frowned at her.

"Me telling you that you were my knight in shining armour."

"Er, I think you mean flattery." Cassie smiled.

"Right." She nodded. "That as well."

"No, I really do think it was just the kiss."

* * *

"Petty Officer Iain Merston?"

"Who's…oh, hey. You're the pretty NCIS agent who was asking 'bout Ryan." He grinned as he looked up from the boot he was shining. He was sat on his doorstep, taking advantage of the first warm weather of the year.

"Technically Mossad officer." She shrugged.

"Where'd the other guy go?"

"Agent McGee is busy, so you've got me instead." Tony shifted slightly closer to Ziva, narrowing his eyes at the petty officer.

"You get Ryan's killer yet?"

"No. Sorry. But we are still trying." She shook her head. "We are actually here because of something you mentioned last time."

"You were fighting over a girl."

"Oh, right, yeah. Er…Jessica…Jennifer…Julia? I took her out once and received a black eye for it." He ran a hand through his hair.

"Right, well, do you know if she had a relationship with Woodson?" Tony asked, placing a protective hand on Ziva's back.

"Did. Don't know when, or if, it ended. Ryan wasn't the sort of one-night-stand type. Why, you think she's a suspect?"

"We would like to talk to her. There is a possibility she witnessed the murder."

"So you want me to see if I can find her number?" He beamed at Ziva, who nodded.

"That would be very helpful." She felt Tony's hand slip round to her waist and tighten slightly. She rolled her eyes.

"Sure. If you just give me a minute, I'll see if I've still got her number." He smiled, standing up and flicking his eyes over Ziva's body. "So, you really are pregnant? Not just spinning a yarn to get me off your back?"

"Yes." She nodded as they followed him inside.

"Which would make you the fiancé?"

"What gave you that impression?" Tony glared at him.

"Er, the jealousy on your face and your hand protectively around her waist." He laughed. "Not sure I could ever settle down."

"I didn't think I could either. Then I met Ziva."

"Is this just closet love, Tony? Do you want something from me?" Ziva looked up at him, curious.

"Cupboard love. And no. It's true, and you know it is. I love you unconditionally." His hand moved from her hip down to clasp her hand.

"You know, if Gibbs saw this right now…" She held their hands up as they stopped in the living room, waiting for Merston to go through is address book.

"He would probably give us each a good head-slap and tell us to keep it out of the office. Again." Tony laughed and nodded.

"Er, hi. Sorry to interrupt this…whatever it is, but I found the number. Jemima." He scrawled the number on a post-it and handed it to Ziva.

"Jemima." Tony grinned. "I knew a Jemima once. Had this long, strawberry-blonde hair, cute…"

"Tony, if you value your hands I would shut up about _Jemima_." Ziva growled.

"You wouldn't do anything to my hands. You like them too much." He smirked lasciviously.

She rose up onto her tiptoes to whisper into his ear. "I would do nothing permanent to them." Her breath brushed against his cheek and he shivered as she chuckled lightly. "Does Jemima have a last name, Petty Officer Merston?" She continued to stand perpendicular to Tony, her front pressed up against his side and her warm breath tickling his cheek and neck.

"Surnames weren't really at the forefront of our minds in the short time that we spent conversing. And the rest of the time, well, let's just say that talking wasn't a priority."

"Thank you, Petty Officer Merston. We will be in touch if we need anything else." They walked out of the house.

"Yeah, just…find the guy who did this. Oh, and good luck with the whole marriage and kids thing."

"Thanks." Tony nodded as they climbed into the Dodge and the petty officer sat back down on the doorstep.

* * *

"Hey, McGoogle, got a phone number for you to run!" Tony stuck the yellow post-it note to the corner of the desk. He waltzed to the centre of the room, planted a kiss on Ziva's lips and sat down just before Gibbs stepped off the elevator, Fornell trailing closely behind with an expression that suggested that things were not boding well for the FBI. "Problem, Boss?"

"Oh, I don't know, DiNozzo. We've got a dead petty officer, a scam, a load of poisoned Jell-O, no suspects and you seem to think we have time for you to kiss your fiancée! Yeah, I think we have a problem!"

"Well, she's my fiancée."

"I know that, DiNozzo! What have we got so far?"

"We have just gotten back from interviewing Petty Officer Iain Merston again. He gave us the phone number of the girl that he and Woodson fought over."

"Running it down now." McGee said, mirroring his screen onto the plasma. "Registered to a Jemima Browne. I'll run the name." He started tapping away on his keyboard and within minutes a DMV photo popped up, showing a young, redheaded woman with the hints of a sly smile. "Born in Pasadena, Texas, 27 years old. Oh, er, hey, Boss, um…"

"Spit it out, McGee."

"Erm, well, she's been put on a terrorist watch alert."

"Affiliated with?"

"Uh…a group called 'Civilisation'." McGee bit his lip.

"We have a bank account registered to a 'Civilisation' and a terror group with the same name and you didn't join the dots?" Gibbs barked at him.

"What dots?" Ziva whispered in Tony's ear and he shook his head.

"Later." He smiled at her, turning back to McGee.

"FBI have them on their watch list."

"You got anything to say to me, Fornell?" Gibbs snapped.

"Uh…we'll get our guys out there to bring them in? Get everyone we can shipped over here?" He hazarded.

"Damn right you will. How could you not tell me that you were watching this group?"

"Well, it's not me personally watching it!" They argued as they headed out of the squad room in the direction of the elevators.

"What dots, Tony?" Ziva turned to him.

"Ah, well, there's this thing that children do where they're given a piece of paper with dots drawn on it and then they join them up to form a picture, then they colour it in. I'm sure Elsie will have a dot-to-dot book, and if not I think we'll have to buy her one because every kid should have a dot-to-dot book at one point in their life. I had one with dinosaurs." He wore a big smile at the memory. "We're really gonna have to educate you on children's games before the babies come. We'll get Elsie and Mina to help." He pressed a kiss to her forehead before walking back to his desk.

"I had a robot colouring book when I was a child." McGee said, smiling.

"Of course you did, McNerd."

* * *

"Ziva! What brings you down here?" Abby grinned as her friend walked into her lab.

"A question." Ziva smiled mysteriously, holding her hands clasped behind her back.

"Ooh, what question?" She bounced up and down, excitement emanating from her pores. Ziva held her hand forwards, her fingers holding three roses, one red, one black and one white, fastened together with a mint green bow.

"Will you be one of my bridesmaids?"

"Eee!" She squealed, engulfing Ziva in the biggest Abby-hug she had ever given. "Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes! Yes! Eee!"

"Abby, you are hurting me."

"Oh, sorry." She leapt back immediately, a grin still covering her face. "What colour are you thinking for the dresses?"

"The colour of the ribbon." She pointed and smiled as Abby grinned. "I was unsure if you would agree, not being able to wear black, but I was thinking maybe you could have black roses in your hair. And you can change into something black for the reception if you want."

"Eeeee! Thank you thank you thank you!"

"You are like a sister to me Abby. The day would not be the same without you and Jenny there with me."

"We wouldn't miss it for the world. Ahhhhh! I'm so excited! What date is the wedding?"

"March 21st."

"It's so close! It's so exciting too. Where are you and Tony going on your honeymoon?"

"We have not discussed it yet. We spent last night writing invites." Ziva smiled and Abby started bouncing up and down again, flinging her arms around Ziva's neck and kissing her cheek.

"I'm so happy for you!"

"I would never have guessed that, Abby." She laughed, for the first time properly reciprocating the hug.

 **I have been in a very grumpy-Gibbs mood lately. I cannot seem to get him as a nice guy, which, around this time, he almost was. I think I have been watching too many of the later seasons where he was not such a nice guy.**

 **My brother actually used to believe that flattery was making plates like pottery was making pots. I know. It would probably surprise you to know that he has always been the top of his class in maths and science. However, English is not his best subject, so that might be where the issue lies.**


	40. Chapter XL

**This was fairly short. I struggled to know how to get it to work. I am not very happy with it.**

XL. Ohana Means Family. Family Means Nobody Gets Left Behind Or Forgotten.

"You need to ask him."

"And I will."

"You need to ask him today."

"Tomorrow."

"Today, Tony. I have asked Abby and Jenny and Gibbs. You must talk to him today." She sighed, perching on the edge of his desk and running her hand down the side of his face. She kissed him softly, brushing her thumb along his lips when she pulled away. "I am spending the evening at Abby's. You can have McGee over and have the house to yourselves."

"I don't want you over exerting yourself. If you get tired or anything, either go to sleep or come back home. And don't drive if you're tired, get a taxi, or get Abby to drive you home. And no alcohol. Or caffeine. Actually, don't accept anything Abby might offer you. Take your own bottle of water. And…"

"Tony! I will be fine. Stop worrying about me." She pressed her lips to his before he could protest, a tactic she had learnt to be effective in silencing him. "I will be fine. He stood up, keeping his lips attached to hers, and moved closer, running his hands down her sides.

"Hmm…maybe I'll just…take you home…with me…and we can go…to bed…" He murmured between kisses.

"Please don't, DiNozzo!" Gibbs growled, hiding a smirk as he walked in and they leapt apart.

"Gibbs, we cannot do anything until the FBI bring our suspects back." Ziva said, smiling sweetly at him as if she hadn't just been kissing his senior field agent.

He sighed. "So you want to go home?"

"Well, actually, I want to go to Abby's place."

"Okay, okay. Go on. You're not gonna get anything else done today." He waved them off and shook his head. "Just don't accept anything Abby offers you to drink."

"Gibbs, I would never offer Ziva anything that would hurt her or the babies!" Abby said as she ran through, momentarily offended by the suggestion but quickly set back on her course of thought. "Are you ready to go?"

"Just let me get my bag and say goodbye to Tony." She smiled, walking to her desk and picking her backpack and coat up before walking back over to Tony. "Goodnight, Mon Petit Pois."

"G'night, Sweetcheeks. What time will you be home?"

"I do not know. Do not wait up for me." She pressed her lips softly to his. "Talk to him."

"I love you."

"I know."

"Hey, did you just quote a movie?"

"Did you?"

"No, I was telling you how much I love you."

"And I was telling you that I know you love me. I love you too." She smiled, giving him a final kiss before Abby looped an arm through hers and dragged her off.

"He's so gonna wait up for you."

"I know." She chuckled, flicking her gaze back to him one more time before she was pulled into the elevator.

"So, McGee…I've got the house to myself tonight…"

"Yeah. Just don't do anything that Ziva wouldn't like." McGee said noncommittally.

"Well, I was thinking that you could come over. I don't wanna be bored tonight."

"And what are we going to be doing, because the last time I was round yours was New Year's Eve and I ended up playing twister with you, Abby, Cassie and Jimmy. I'm not playing twister again, Tony."

"No, nothing like twister. We can just talk, y'know, catch up. Oh, hey, I got the paint's for the nursery the other day. You could help me start painting it. I need to do the white base layer before I can do anything else so that will be a real help."

"You don't want to be alone when she's not there?" McGee smiled knowingly. He'd noticed that Tony had spent more time in the office when Ziva had been in the hospital. He really couldn't live without her. "I'll help you paint the nursery."

"Thanks, McMonet."

* * *

"No, look, like this." McGee demonstrated. "Put less on the brush. You put too much on the brush and it goes everywhere. No more than half an inch on the brush."

"Got it, Probie. I know how to paint, it's really not rocket science."

"That's funny, 'cause you're treating it like it is." McGee quipped. They lapsed into silence, each working on individual walls.

"Tim…" Tony started and then paused, shaking his head.

"What?"

"I have a lot of friends, frat brothers from college and mates from past precincts. But I don't want any of them as my best man." McGee turned around. "You're like a little brother." He stood awkwardly, fidgeting with the paintbrush in his hand.

"Tony, you're like the annoying big brother that I never wanted. But you've taught me things and helped me grow up. I'll do whatever you want. If you want me to be your best man at your wedding, I will, if you want me to babysit your kids so you and Ziva can have a night to yourselves, I will. And I think Abby will say the same. And so will Gibbs and Ducky and the director and even Jimmy."

"You don't have to do that."

"Oh, but we do. See, you're our friends, our family. We have no choice but to help you. And, of course, offering to help keeps us in Ziva's good books."

"Ah, yes. And with those hormones…"

"Exactly. How've they been recently?"

"Not so bad. Ducky recons they'll get worse though. She yelled at me yesterday when I asked why she was crying at the news."

"Why was she crying at the news?"

"I still don't really know." He shook his head and McGee laughed, turning back to the wall he was painting.

"What's it like, Tony? Settling down?"

He paused and looked back at McGee again. "It's…different. Good different. I don't know. I wake up every day and I think about how lucky I am to have her wake up beside me, y'know. I watch her when she working and I can't believe how lucky I am to have her carrying my babies."

"You're happy." McGee summarised.

"Happier than ever before. I don't want anything else. I have everything I want."

* * *

"Oh, please, Ziva? Please?" Abby slotted another invite into its envelope.

"I do not know, Abby. It is something that I will have to discuss with Tony." Ziva sighed and looked at her friend.

"But how come everyone else gets to make a speech and I don't?!"

"Well, I am not making a speech, and nor is Jenny or Ducky…"

"If you let Ducky make a speech he'll go on for hours. I won't make it a long speech. Please?" Abby pleaded with her. Her puppy-dog eyes and innocent face made it difficult to say no.

"Abby, it is not just my decision. It is up to Tony too."

"Then I'll ask Tony as well. Look, I'll phone him up now." She grabbed the phone and Ziva shook her head, stopping her.

"Remember why I am here, Abby? I am here so he can ask McGee to be his best man. Please do not disturb them."

"Fine. But I'll ask tomorrow. Ooh, did Gibbs say yes to walking you down the aisle?"

"What do you think?"

"Ah! It's so exciting!" Abby squealed and jumped up.

"It is only two months and one week away." Ziva grinned. "Which means this weekend you must come with me so we can get your dress made."

"Oh, oh, oh, come with me!" She grabbed her hand and pulled her up, dragging the Israeli through to her bedroom. Ziva raised her eyebrows at the coffin in the centre of the room, but let it slid, turning to face the wardrobe that Abby was riffling through. "Ah-ha." She tugged a black cotton dress off of a hanger and held it out, grinning. It was a halter neck with a sweetheart neckline and a laced bodice. She could see a tulle underskirt peeking out from the bottom. "You said I could wear black for the reception?"

"It is very you." Ziva smiled.

"But it's okay?"

"Of course it is. You can wear what you want."

"Eeeeee! Thank you!" She flung her arms around Ziva's neck and kissed her cheek. The assassin just chuckled.

"Abby, please be careful."

"Oh. Sorry." The Goth pulled away quickly, bending down so she was the same height as Ziva's stomach. "Sorry babies. I didn't mean to hurt you, not that I did, but I just want you to know that you are gonna be the luckiest babies in the world because you're going to have a mummy and daddy who love you so much."

"And an Auntie Abby who loves you too." Ziva smiled, pulling her t-shirt up and exposing the golden skin.

"Auntie Abby?! Eeee! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"I told you, you are like a sister to me, and to Tony."

"Eeee! Now I'm even more excited than I was before." Abby bounced around, grinning from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat. She stood and watched on as her friend jumped around, babbling about the wedding and the twins and smiled. She had never though she would ever have what she had. She never thought she would get married and be having children. She never even thought she would have a friend such as Abby who was more of a sister than she could have ever imagined she would be. She never considered the idea that she would have a father figure that would care for her enough to walk her down the aisle, or that she would even have a real family at all. But she did. It was so surreal, and yet it seemed…right.

Everything was falling into place.

 **Chapter 40. Only ten more until the big chapter 50. I have 11 chapters prewritten for various points in time, and chapter 50 should be one of those, but I do not know which out of two yet. It will depend upon how I space the next few chapters out. Anyway, that is going to be very exciting. Or at least it is for me.**

 **The quote is, I believe, from Lilo and Stitch, which I myself have never seen, but the quote is my brother and my best friend's favourite quote, so I promised them I would use it in a chapter.**

 **Oh, Abby's dress is the H &R London 'Lace Cotton Dress'. I do not think I described it very well. You might be able to find it on the emp-online website.**


	41. Chapter XLI

**I am so sorry that it has been over a month since I last updated this; I have no excuse other than a lack of motivation. I know where I want this to go, I just do not know how I want to get them there yet, which makes this feel, for me, like it is taking me a lifetime to get anywhere, and it probably feels the same to you, too.**

 **Oh, if you have not noticed, I have changed my username on here, so it is now BuryTheHatchet, not SilentWitnessNerd like it used to be. I am not going to go into explaining why I changed it, because it would just take too long, but just make sure that you know that. Sorry for any inconveniences that caused.**

XLI. I'm Selfish, Impatient And A Little Insecure. I Make Mistakes, I Am Out Of Control And At Times Hard To Handle. But If You Can't Handle Me At My Worst, Then You Sure As Hell Don't Deserve Me At My Best.

Ziva smiled at the light emanating from the front window of the house as she slid her key into the lock and walked through the front door. She stood in the doorway to the living room, watching as Tony stared blankly at Dr No. "I thought I told you not to wait up for me?" His head whipped up and a smile broke out across his face as he sighed in relief.

"What sort of a fiancé would I be if I didn't wait up for you?"

"One who follows orders?"

"But then I wouldn't be me, would I?" He stood and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair. "I missed you."

"I was only gone for five hours." She laughed.

"Well, it was five hours too long. Did you get all of the invites done?"

"Every last one of them." She groaned. "They are in a box in the car. How about you? How did your mission go?"

"Y'know, I don't see what all of the fuss was about. He's McGee, any chance to write words down and read them to everybody and he takes it. McWordsworth is probably already writing his speech." He grinned and she rolled her eyes.

"About speeches…Abby would like to say something at out wedding. I told her I would have to talk to you."

He paused. It was not that he did not want Abby to make a speech; she was like a little sister to him – a crazy, caffeinated little sister, but a little sister all the same. He was just hesitant, as he could see his fiancée was. Abby had a tendency to go off on tangents and she could be unpredictable at times. But then, so could their boss, and he would be making the 'father-of-the-bride' speech. "Well, I guess since Gibbs is making a speech we could let Abby make one. We'll just have to make sure she keeps it child friendly."

"Ah, yes. My little flower girl." She smiled and leant into his warm embrace further, sighing with contentment and resting her head on his chest. "Do you think we will be able to get Elsie into a dress?"

"Hey, dresses are your problem, Sweetcheeks." He chuckled and backed away slightly. "Just say what you said to Abby. Tell her she can change into a pair of dungarees for the reception."

"I never told Abby that she could wear a pair of dungarees at the reception."

He rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean. She can wear her own choice of clothes for the reception."

"Abby already has her dress for the reception. It is black."

He gasped. "No! I'm shocked!"

"Come on. Bed." She said, keeping her smile subdued although still present, curving her lips up slightly.

"Yes, Ma'am." He saluted, keeping his face straight.

"Call me Ma'am again, DiNozzo, and I can guarantee that you will not be waking up tomorrow."

"Then I'll just have to not go to sleep. Hmm, what can I do in bed without sleeping…?"

"Get it out of your head, Tony. I am tired. I want to sleep."

"Okay. Sleep then." He pressed two kisses to her bump, one either side, and then placed a soft, tender kiss on her lips, smiling as she looped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss.

She pulled away slightly, her cheeks tinted pink and her eyes sparkling. "Maybe I am not _that_ tired, Tony…"

* * *

"Abby says we need to talk about our honeymoon."

"Does she now?" Tony murmured as he continued to press kisses along her collarbone.

"I am certain Doctor Green will not let me fly."

He looked up at her, his lips breaking away from her skin. "I won't let you fly. You're gonna be six months pregnant, with twins, flying is not an option. No. Absolutely not."

She shoved him none too gentle to the other side of the bed. "You are not the boss of me, Tony! What makes you think you have the right to tell me what I can and cannot do?"

His hands were held up in surrender at her sudden outburst, making sure to keep enough distance from her so that he would not risk being hit, or worse. "Hey, I was just saying because I love you and I love our babies and I don't want anything to go wrong." She ignored him as she stood up and stormed into the bathroom, grabbing clothes as she went. "Where are you going?" The door slammed and he could hear the muffled beginnings of her crying as the shower turned on. "Ziva, I'm sorry…" He leant against the door, trying to hear if she replied. He was uncertain of how long he spent at the door to the en-suite, but it was long enough for the shower to stop running. He waited for her to emerge, but she didn't. "Ziva, please…" He could hear the tap and it sounded like she was brushing her teeth. So, when he realised that she was not going to come out whilst she knew he was there, he walked downstairs and prepared breakfast.

* * *

Breakfast was held in a tense silence, broken only by Tony's failed attempts to start conversations. The car journey was just as icy. "Ziva!" He yelled as she jumped out, ignoring him as the car door slammed behind her. He groaned and followed her up to the squad room, cringing when her bag hit her desk with a resounding _thud_ that reverberated around the quiet office.

"Zi…" Gibbs started, only to be cut of by her whirling on him.

"What?!"

"You okay?"

"Fine." And with that she was gone, storming towards the rear elevator.

"What did you do now, DiNozzo?" He sighed, looking over to his senior field agent.

"Why do you assume it was me?!"

"Who else could it have been?" McGee laughed.

"Anybody! How do you know she's not angry at some guy who overtook us on the way into work?"

Gibbs raised his eyebrows. "Is she?"

"No." He grumbled and laid his head in his hands. "She took something I said the wrong way."

"What was it?"

"I just said that I didn't want her flying anywhere for out honeymoon." He defended himself.

"Ziva doesn't like being told what to do at the best of times."

"I know, McGee." Tony growled at his friend. "She is _my_ fiancée, after all." He groaned and leaned back in his chair. "Pregnant women should come with warnings. Or there should be a disclosure sort of form thing that you have to fill out, you know, before you sleep with them." The other two agents exchanged a glance and then looked over to Tony as he rambled on about how unfair it was to just expect men to put up with hormonal mood swings.

* * *

"…And then he just expects me to be okay with him bossing me about like a…like a…submissive person! I am not a submissive person!" Ziva had been shouting for fifteen minutes. Abby had listened for the first two, and then put a pair of earplugs in. Ziva had not seemed to notice. Either that or she was too riled up to care.

But the earplugs were becoming ineffective as her tirades grew in volume. "ZIVA! STOP!" The lab fell silent. "This is a place of calm and peace, not anger. If you want to go and shout at Tony, do it, but please, you are upsetting Major MassSpec."

"I do not want to shout at Tony." Ziva looked at Abby, hurt written across her face.

"Then what do you want to do?"

"I…I…I do not know." She looked down at her shoes. "He was right."

"Then what's the problem?!" Abby cried, exasperated, for she was getting more and more confused by the minute and just wanted to go back to the evidence she was processing.

"I did not like the way he said it."

"Ziva, nobody likes the way Tony says anything."

"I like the way he tells me he loves me." Her cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment at the simple statement that to any other woman would not be considered something to be shy about.

Abby wrapped her arms around her. "You know, you'll stop hating him when the twins are born."

"I do not hate him now!" Ziva pulled away, anger flaring in her eyes again.

"Of course you don't, but this momentary…uh...should I just stop now?" She asked hesitantly, her usually confident demeanour somewhat waning under Ziva's glare.

"That would be advisable."

"Yeah, thought so…" Abby nodded, backing away slightly. There was silence in the lab until the computer dinged and a relieved expulsion of air left Abby's lips, along with an utterance of 'saved by the bell'.

"Is this something to do with the Jell-O case, Abby?" Ziva asked as both women walked over to the monitor.

"No, it's another case that came through here yesterday. Just some blood tests I was running for Ducky. Nothing special, all clear. No alcohol or drugs." She shrugged and turned to the Israeli. "Go talk to Tony. Apologise."

* * *

She cleared her throat as she stood over him. His head was on his desk and his eyes were pressed closed, but at the sound of her small cough he looked up and smiled meekly. "Hey."

"We need to talk."

"Couldn't agree more." He sat up properly. He watched as she tilted her head and both Gibbs and McGee suddenly dropped their heads.

"Not here. Somewhere without sneezey people."

"Nosey people?"

"That is the one." She allowed a small smiled to grace her lips and snagged his hand in hers, tugging him out of his seat and towards the elevator. As the doors slid closed she turned to him. "It was…not right of me to react the way I did." She shifted uncomfortably. Admitting she was wrong was not an easy task. She kept her arms crossed over her chest and her posture strict. "However, I did not like the way you spoke so possessively of me."

"Yeah. There's no link between my brain and mouth." He shrugged and a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "You know I didn't mean it like that, don't you?" She nodded, a small, imperceptible nod that he wasn't certain he hadn't imagined. "I love you, Ziva. More than anything. You know that." He reached out his hand and brushed his fingers lightly down her upper arm. She softened slightly, leaning into his touch. "Please say something?" She unfolded her arms and wrapped them around him, pressing a kiss to his jaw. She didn't have to say anything. He knew his apology had been accepted and he knew he was forgiven.

 **I did not know where to end this chapter. I do not think I ended it very well at all. I had written another 1000 words or so, but I did not like the way they fit and the way they were taking the story. I do not know… I think this one has hit a brick wall and does not have the strength to climb over it at the moment. It will do in a few chapters, because they are all written up and finished and I really like some of the accumulating chapters that I have, but that does mean that you have to be patient with me whilst I work my way towards them. Writing has been a little difficult over the past few days, and it does not seem to be getting better. You will all have to be patient with me, because although I will not give up on this, it is going to take some time.**


	42. Chapter XLII

**Chapter 42! The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything! Hurray!**

 **Now that is over, where was I… oh, yes… Again, it has been so long since I have updated. Anything. But, and, drumroll for a pathetic excuse…I have been busy. I know, I know, we are all busy, we live in a modern world with increasingly less time to do things that we enjoy and that make us human and we are all becoming more and more like the computers and robots that we work so hard to design and engineer, it is no excuse, but really, since writing is only a way of me expressing my feelings, work and life are the priority, which means that there has been literally NO time for writing. At all. I have not looked at any of my writing since I last updated…uh, what did I last update…oh, yes, it was 'Dead Reckoning'. That was actually only 10 days ago, but still, it has been a while.**

 **I sat down at 2200h yesterday and looked at my list of things to do and realised that I had actually, for the first time in two weeks, completed everything. Which meant that, since I was still wired from working, only having had a break to read the updates of 'Partners' by MCmondo and 'Familiar Faces' by TivaRulesInGreece on the bus on the way home and when cooking dinner respectively, I had a lot of words buzzing around in my head, pleading to be let loose on a piece of paper. Go check the two stories I mentioned out, they are both brilliantly written and so much more worthy of your attention than this is.**

 **The title quote was said by Alan Rickman, because he is an amazing guy. Or was an amazing guy. Now he is up there with Bowie, Einstein, Glenn Frey, Lennon, Lenin (Because he was my favourite historical political figure to study when I was at school, and he was a pretty cool guy, despite what some may call slightly radical political ideas), Tolstoy, Orwell, Terry Pratchett and Enzo Ferrari, wherever 'there' may be.**

XLII. I Am The Character You Are Not Supposed To Like

"They're here, they're here. Fornell's got everyone they brought back from Pasadena. Half of them are here, half of them are over at the FBI." McGee waltzed in, grinning like a fool.

"Good. I'll be glad when this case is over."

"Not over yet, DiNozzo." Gibbs said, dropping a file on each of their desks. "Read up on them, we each take one of the interviews." He looked at his watch. "We start in an hour. We work through the night." His gaze fell on Ziva.

"Gibbs…" She sighed.

"You will take a break when you feel you need it."

"I will not…"

"That is an order, David. Either you take a break when you feel yourself getting tired, or hungry, or you do not conduct the interview at all. It is up to you."

"Understood." She opened the file in front of her and started reading it to signify that, although she would never state it out loud, she would, if she felt the need for it, take a break.

After fifty minutes of reading, there was a silent unanimous decision to move towards the interrogation rooms. They all stood, more or less at the same time, and, carrying the files on the terrorists at their sides, they walked down the corridor. Ziva had also taken a jar of olives from her desk drawer, attracting a questioning look from McGee, a smirk from Gibbs and a peck on the cheek from Tony. They all paused outside of their respective interrogation rooms. Gibbs gave a silent nod and turned into his room first.

"Good luck, guys." McGee smiled and disappeared as well, leaving Tony and Ziva alone in the corridor.

He walked over to her and kissed her softly. "Promise me that you'll go and get some sleep on the couch in Jenny's office? Please?"

"I promise." She smiled, pressing her lips to his for a final time before they parted to go into their separate interrogation rooms.

* * *

Gibbs stepped into the grey room and glared at the woman sat at the table. He sat down, maintaining his silence, and opened the file up, placing a photograph of the dead petty officer suspended in red gelatin on the table between them. The woman in front of him ignored it, staring straight ahead at her emotionless reflection in the glass. He slammed his palm onto the table, which had no effect on the motionless woman. "Look at it! He drowned in the Jello. My ME says it would have been painful and slow."

"I don't know him." She pursed her cherry-red lips.

"I have a witness that says you do. You had a relationship with Petty Officer Ryan Woodson." He glared his famous Gibbs' Glare, the one Abby insisted he should patent, and her unflinching demeanour seemed to crumble slightly. "Look at him."

"We had a fling. That's all."

"No, no, that's not all. You had a fling, you stole from him and then you killed him by throwing him into the pool of Jello. Now, my scientist, she says that it would have taken a while to set to the consistency that it was when you threw him in. For how long did you have the plan in your mind before you killed him?"

"I did not kill him."

"So, the terrorist group that you're associated with just used all of their Jello to kill your boyfriend? I don't think so."

"I'm not a terrorist."

"The FBI have surveillance images of you with the other members of the terrorist group Civilisation." He laid out a series of photographs.

"Guilt by association? It won't stand up in court." A slightly relieved smirk crossed her face as she was overcome with a sudden confidence.

"I wouldn't be so sure. The FBI, they have fingerprints, your fingerprints, that they found on boxes containing poisoned Jello in a warehouse that was under their surveillance."

"That's impossible, I…" She stopped herself. "I've never been to a warehouse containing Jello."

"No? Any suggestion as to how those prints got there?" Gibbs raised his eyebrows.

"Well, they must have been planted there."

"No. No, your fingerprints are all over the place. They haven't been planted. You're guilty."

"Guilty of being in a warehouse." She looked at him incredulously. "As far as I know, that's not a crime."

"No, but terrorism is. So is murder. And lying to a federal agent." Gibbs stood up, closing the file and walking to the door.

* * *

"Ethan Whitman, you were quite the celebrity down at your local precinct when you were younger, weren't you – although more like Alan Rickman, always the baddy. B&E, GBH, Assault with a deadly weapon, I could go on?"

"I know my past. But it is just that, my past… I have grown up and learnt from my mistakes as a child." The young man said.

"I have the details of a flight up to Washington here on December 22nd that you were on. Incidentally, so was your pal Jemima."

"I don't know any Jemimas."

"You should." He opened the folder to a photo and frowned at it, showing it to the other man so he could get a look too. "Isn't that you, there? And that's Jemima?" He identified two people, their faces shown in profile as their lips were locked in what, from the static image, Tony could only imagine was a pretty passionate kiss. "You realise that she was sleeping with Petty Officer Ryan Woodson, don't you? Is that why you killed him? Decided to use all of that leftover Jello that you were unable to circulate to kill him off. I'm guessing the warfarin was leftover too?"

"I don't have to talk to you."

"No, you don't, but if you don't talk to me, then you have to talk to someone else, and really there are only three other options. Option one is your best next option after me, my colleague and friend Special Agent McGee. He's tired and grouchy 'cause he hasn't been able to play on any of his computer games or write any more of his book lately, because of this case."

"What're my other options?"

"Well, the other two are both as bad as each other. My boss, Special Agent Gibbs, he's made grown men wet their pants. He could kill the Terminator with a glare. He doesn't like long cases, or crimes involving kids, both of which are categories your little Jello plot falls into. Your other option is my fiancée. My pregnant Mossad-assassin fiancée. She is tired. She is hormonal. She is craving olives. She is struggling to keep her assassin side in check and has been stalking the corridors looking for prey to pounce upon. The twins she's carrying, my twins, they're the most important thing in the world to her, and have awoken some maternal instinct in her. Rule one of life, never mess with a Mama bear's cubs, rule two, never mess with any other cubs. Rule three's never mess with a pregnant Mossad-assassin ninja, but that one never really comes up, 'cause how many people frequently bump into pregnant Mossad-assassin ninjas. Anyway, you broke rule two of life, and so I really, really don't advise choosing her as your better option. Gibbs, again not a wise choice. McGee, well, I don't know anyone, apart from maybe our forensic scientist, who would willingly volunteer to spend time with him, but he's probably still your best next… Although, since we told everyone about the twins, he's been a lot more protective, just like Gibbs, and so I really think that none of the options are wise. I'd stick with me if I were you. It's safer."

"If I tell you what you want to know, will you shut up?"

"Depends on what you tell me." Tony shrugged. "Wait, why do you want me to shut up?"

* * *

"Olive?" She held out the jar to their suspect, taking one for herself and popping it in her mouth.

"I'm good thanks." He said slowly, a cautious look on his face.

"Suit yourself." Ziva shrugged, taking another olive and leaning back in her chair. "So Joshua, have you eaten any children's deserts recently?"

"What?!"

"Jello?"

"No." He growled, growing frustrated with the obscure line of questioning.

"Probably wise."

"Look, what's all this about?!" He demanded.

"Tell me about civilisation."

"The stage at which human and social development is considered most advanced."

Ziva raised her eyebrows and bit into another olive. "Anyone would think you learnt that from a dictionary."

"I did. I am a lexicographer."

"Mmhm." She nodded. "Graduated from Harvard with a Major in English and a Minor in Philosophy. Now, what would an intelligent, good looking man such as yourself want with spiking a warehouse full of Jello with Warfarin?"

"I don't know what you mean." He shrugged.

"What do you gain from it? What do you get from killing a load of children, innocent children who have done nothing wrong and who have done nothing to harm anybody?!" She slammed the jar on the table, brine sloshing over the side, as she stood up leaning forwards. Joshua Linton stayed silent, staring at her defiantly. "Forty children had to be hospitalised! Twelve children died!" She flipped a folder open and started forcefully placing photographs down, two for each name – one of a living child, the other an autopsy image of the same young face. "Lola Cartwright, five years old! Toby Forbes, seven and a half years old! Annabel Coton, six years old! Her sister, Nina Coton, died on her third birthday!" Her accent was growing thicker and thicker with every word, especially so when she placed the picture of the young girl blowing out three candles on a birthday cake, bowls of Jello on the table surrounding her. "Owen Addams, six years old! Louis Watson, eighteen months old! Henry Banks, five years old! Lena Bancroft, nine years old! Karen Harris, four years old! Elizabeth Simons, eight years old! Robbie Bates, two years old!" She leaned closer, pushing the photo of the laughing boy directly in front of him. "He was the same age as your son!"

"My son is dead!" His anger flared.

She stood back slightly, her shoulders falling. "I know." Her voice had dropped to a whisper as she moved back to sit in her chair. "They did not deserve to die. So why take their lives away from them like your son's was taken."

"To grab peoples' attention." He stated and she was up and squeezing his neck within the blink of an eye.

She put a little more pressure on his thin neck, watching the fear in his eyes. "If I had my way, I would have you die so painfully you would wish your grandparents had never been born, and I would do the honours to make sure the job was done. However, you will rot in jail for the rest of your miserable existence. You will lose everything that you loved, like the parents of these children lost everything they loved."

"You're too late…I already have…" He struggled, his crushed trachea making speech difficult.

She released her tight grasp, leaving the room and nodding to the agent stood outside. He walked inside, closing the door behind him and leaving her alone in the orange corridor. She leaned back up against the wall and covered her mouth with her hand as she stifled a cry, sinking down to the floor and bringing her knees to her chest in an attempt to hide from everything in the world.

 **I do not really like this chapter. I hate writing interrogation scenes; I think they are my biggest weakness. I struggled writing McGee's interview, so I deleted it because I did not like it.**

 **I think of all of them I like Ziva's the best though.**

 **The next chapter will finish off the interviews, which I hope will finish off the case. I hope.**


	43. Chapter XLIII

**I was really, really fed up with the Jello case. I did try to persevere with it, but I gave up after a really bad day. If I could have gotten it to work, then I would have, but I was tired and angry and…and…**

 **Oh, my. I have just realised that this is chapter 43, and since I already have 49 and 50 semi-typed up I need to start thinking how I am going to squeeze two and a half months into six chapters. I have two of those partially written up already, but I do not know where they fit. I think it will probably be something like chapters 44 and 46. Oh, they are really close together. Hmm. Wow, time flies. Have we had any pre-written chapters yet? I forget. I shall have to check. No. Just checked. Not a single chapter that I wrote up completely out of order so far has been uploaded, which is a small miracle because I have already written 15 out of order, although one of them I am not so sure about.**

 **And, to make matters slightly worse, I am going away for a week or so with limited time to write and even more limited access to the internet, which means there will be no updates for a while, and if you review, which I always hope you do, and you would be expecting a reply, either because I normally do or because you made a comment that would usually require a reply, then do not worry, I will get around to it, it may just take some time.**

 **Of course, if you are reading this in the future, then there is a chance that I will reply more or less immediately or never at all, depending upon how far into the future it is and what I am doing.**

 **Long Author's note. Sorry. If you read all of it, you deserve a cookie.**

XLIII. A Child Needs A Grandparent, Anybody's Grandparent, To Grow A Little More Securely Into An Unfamiliar World.

"Hey…" Tony's warm voice drifted through her sleep-hazed mind. "Hey, Sleepyhead."

"Mmm…what time is it?" She shifted slightly, rolling over so she was facing him. He smiled softly, running his fingers down her cheek. She pressed a kiss to the palm of his hand.

"About 0600h. Gibbs want's to talk to us." Her face fell when she remembered the night before, the interrogation.

"Why do we do this, Tony?"

"Because just imagine how many bad guys would be out there if we didn't." He wiped away the tear that trickled down her cheek. "Come here." She sat up on the couch in Jenny's office and leaned into the hug he engulfed her in.

"He was not going to tell me anything."

He pulled away slightly whilst letting his hands drop to her waist. "Yeah, no-one broke. Even Gibbs couldn't break Jemima. He handed them all over to the FBI. Fornell's team's got more people and more resources. And since it was their case in the beginning, Gibbs said he could continue with the interviews, so long as he tells us the results."

"No more Jello?"

"No more Jello." He pressed his lips to hers and brought his hands up to cup her face, smiling into the kiss. He moved from being kneeled on the carpet to sitting next to her on the couch. She tangled her hands in his hair and shuffled closer to him, throwing one leg over his to straddle him, causing him to chuckle. "I don't think sex on the director's couch is an appropriate use of government property."

"No, it most certainly is not. Nor is sex in any other part of this building." Jenny smirked from where she stood in the doorway. Ziva blushed whilst Tony grinned. "Well done for the case. Go on, I won't tell Gibbs what I just witnessed."

"I think, Jen, after the week we have had, he will not mind if our personal and professional lives intersect just a little bit." Ziva smiled and stood up, the blush still not entirely faded. "Thank you for letting me sleep on your sofa."

"You're welcome." The director stifled a laugh as the pair of Gibbs' agents hurried out of her office like a pair of school children who had just been caught in the act.

* * *

"Ziva. You okay?" Gibbs asked as Tony and she walked to their desks, Tony's hand lingering on her back for as long as physically possible.

"Yes." She nodded as he walked over to her.

He lowered his voice. "I watched the tape of your interrogation. You sure you're okay? It was a difficult…"

"I am fine, Gibbs." She stared at him as he tilted her chin up to look at her properly.

"Mmhm." He narrowed his eyes, not quite believing her, but let it slid. "You know where to find me if you need to talk. About anything. Or even, y'know, if you want some peace and quiet from DiNozzo."

"You are suggesting that he can be as unbearable at home as he is here, yes?" She laughed.

"Well…"

"He is not. If he was, do you think he would still be alive?"

"Fair point." He snickered and walked to the centre of the bullpen. "Write your reports up, then go home. It's been a long few weeks. I'll call when the FBI notify us on the outcome. Until then, go home, get some rest. I don't want to see any of you in here until next Monday."

"Next Monday? That's six days. That's almost a week, Boss."

"Well done, DiNozzo. You can do maths." Gibbs said sarcastically.

"No, Boss, I was just saying that's a long time off."

"You've earned it." Their boss sat down at his desk watching as each one of his agents started typing up their reports on the case.

* * *

McGee blinked and yawned as the final page of his report printed off, the first one to finish out of the rest of the team. He sat back down and stapled the top left corner, making sure everything lined up correctly before permanently securing the papers together and sliding the report into a manila folder. He handed it to Gibbs and grinned. "I'm gonna go down to see Abby." He grabbed his bag and coat. "Hey, um, do you two want to go out for dinner at some point over the next week with me and Abby?"

Tony and Ziva exchanged a glance and both shrugged. "Sure, McProbie-Wan-Kenobi. Call us sometime and we can arrange where and when." Tony smiled as Tim nodded and headed off.

Ziva was done with her report next and handed it over to Gibbs before sitting on the edge of Tony's desk, watching him type and commenting every so often on his speed, or lack thereof. "You realise that this would go much faster if you learned to type properly."

"That may be true, but I like typing my way." He sighed, tapping away with his index fingers at a rate of about twelve words per minute.

"I am bored, Tony."

"I'm almost done. You know what you could do whilst you're waiting? You could write your vows."

"What makes you think I have not already written them?"

"Well, I…"

"Because you have not started yours?" She smirked. "I finished mine last week, the day after I got back from the hospital."

"You didn't say anything?" He played with her fingers in much the same way he had when they were in Venice, tangling and untangling his own large, calloused ones with her thin, dainty ones. He smiled at the knowledge that if he ever vocalised the fact that he thought she had dainty fingers, he himself would have all ten of his broken.

"I did not want to pressurise you. We have all been very busy, and you do not need the added strain of having to think of writing your vows."

"You are amazing." He smiled up at her, thinking about the words written on the piece of paper tucked into an envelope in his bottom drawer, hidden in one of Gibbs' medal cases in the lock-box. He had written his vows when she had been in the hospital, but he wasn't going to tell her that, much like she hadn't told him.

* * *

"You gonna just stand there or you gonna come in?" He looked up as Ziva walked slowly down the stairs of the basement, a worried expression on her face. "What's wrong?" He frowned, concerned, as she sat down on one of the wooden stools.

"He lost everything, Gibbs."

"Who?"

"Joshua Linton. He lost his wife and his son. He had nothing left. It was like, when I was squeezing his neck he was daring me to do it."

"He probably was."

"Gibbs, if I die…"

"Great way to start a conversation."

"Gibbs. Please." She sighed and he nodded, allowing for her to continue. "When I die, I will most likely be leaving behind Tony and two children. I never want to have to imagine Tony looking that…despondent. I just want to know that if anything happens to me you will look after him, make sure he does not lose his hope and his faith and his friends, please?"

"Of course, Ziva. We all will." He nodded, placing a hand over hers.

"I also want to ask that you look after my babies if something goes wrong. I understand that there is always a chance that Tony and I will not be coming home one day, and…I want to know that my children will be kept safe and loved and nothing will happen to them because of a failure on my part. I know it is a lot to ask, but…"

"I know, Ziva. I understand." He smiled. "We do what we have to for family. You're going to be an amazing mother. I have no doubt."

She nodded, looking down in embarrassment – she always had been unused to compliments. Her hand dropped to absently caress her stomach as her tongue darted out to moisten her lips, preparing herself for her next question. "Gibbs…I know I am not Kelly, and I would never for one second presume that you would think of me in the same way, but… My children, mine and Tony's children, they do not really have much going for them in the way of grandparents. I mean, Tony's father, he does not even know, and my father…well…" She snorted and shook her head. "I never had grandparents – they died long before I was born – but that does not mean that I do not wish I had grandparents. I wish I had somebody whom I could go to with my problems and my concerns, someone with years of experience on their belt."

"Under their belt." Gibbs smirked.

"Anywhere on their belt will do. Somebody like Ducky, or…you."

"You calling me old, David?"

"No!" She cried, blushing and shaking her head. "No, I just…"

"I was joking."

"Oh. Well it was not a very funny joke." She lapsed into silence.

"You're asking me to be the twins' granddad?"

"Yes. I mean, only if you feel comfortable. Tony and I have had many conversations about it."

"DiNozzo know you're here now?"

She shook her head. "No, he is sleeping – We went dancing earlier and I think that wore him out. I did not want to wake him, but I knew I had to talk to you."

"It's late. You need sleep too, remember what the doctor said?" He raised his eyebrows at her.

"I know. And what about you? Will you be getting any sleep tonight?"

"I'll grab a few hours."

"That does not sound sincere." She smiled sadly. "Gibbs, Tony and McGee and Abby and I, we are planning on going out for dinner on Sunday night, bringing the girls along. I am sure nobody would mind if you joined us?" She offered hesitantly.

He chuckled and shook his head. "No, no. You spend the evening as a group. You need some time without the grownups pestering you." He kissed her forehead. "Now go on, get some sleep. I'll see you on Monday."


	44. Chapter XLIV

**I am not so enthused with this chapter, although enthusiasm is something that I am struggling with on a whole at the moment.**

 **And, add to that, life has just become…complicated. And hectic. As I have said, things are getting written, but there is a high probability that nothing will be uploaded for a while.**

 **This just feels…unfinished. But it did not work with any more put in, because it felt clunky. It feels clunky now. Oh, dear…**

 **I am, though, very excited about some of the other chapters that are coming up in this very soon.**

XLIV. Children Must Be Taught How To Think, Not What To Think.

"So, are you excited for the wedding?"

"Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah! Ziva's dress is so pretty, it's got…" Ziva, Jenny, Abby and Elsie had been at Nora's getting dresses fitted for most of the day, whilst McGee and Tony had been looking after Mina. The infant was still alive, at least, and so she seemed to be fine, something that had shocked Abby and left Ziva mildly surprised, though she wasn't showing it.

"Sweetie, Tony's not allowed to hear about Ziva's dress." McGee placed a hand on Elsie's little arm.

"Why? He's going to see it at the wedding anyway?"

"Because it's tradition."

"Aw, come on Abs, it's not like we have kept any other traditions. I wanna hear about Ziva's dress." Tony whined in protest, pouting.

"No." Ziva brushed a thumb across his cheekbone and pressed a light kiss to the corner of his mouth. "Elsie is right, you will be seeing it at the wedding anyway."

"But the wedding's ages away."

"Two months and one week. That is not ages. That is very little time at all. I think you will survive." She picked the bottle of formula back off the table and went back to feeding Mina, smiling when the infant laid her small hand on the bottle next to her own. "How about you tell Tony about your dress?"

"It's green and it has white flowers on it. Are you certain I have to wear it, Ziva?"

"Yes, Honey. But, I told you, it is only for the ceremony, and then you can change into your normal clothes."

"But how come Mina doesn't have to wear a dress." She pouted, he little face crinkling up.

"Because Mina does not have the very special job of being my flower girl, does she?" Elsie huffed, but nodded, leaning into Ziva's side.

"Anyway, I'm sure Mina will be wearing a dress too." McGee smiled, about to speak again before being interrupted by Tony.

"I'm hungry!"

"Tony, you're worse than Elsie!" Abby tried to keep a straight face as he pouted.

"I've had longer to practice." He grumbled. "Besides, I'm bigger than Elsie, I need more food than her." He perked up immediately as a waiter and a waitress brought their food over and the table fell silent as they all tucked in – all but Ziva, who was finishing feeding Mina. "You need to eat something."

"I will."

"Ziva…"

"I will, Tony. Do not worry, I am fine. Mina is almost done." She smiled at him.

"Not good enough." He shook his head, taking her fork and spearing a piece of food, holding it out to her. "Eat."

"Aww. Tony that's so cute!"

"No. I will not let you fork-feed me."

"Spoon-feed."

"But it is a fork." She frowned, pulling away when he inched it closer to her face.

"That's just the expression."

"Well, really, when someone is being spoon-fed, it is usually actually with a spoon, or metaphorically, and so, I mean, really I guess Ziva is actually correct." McGee babbled.

"Enough with the big words, McWordsworth." Tony glared at him across the table as he placed Ziva's fork down, making Elsie laugh. He started pulling faces at her, making her laugh louder and attracting a few looks from other tables, none overly angry, but very few ecstatic for their meals to be interrupted by the child's uncontrollable laughing and the man's antics.

"Tony…" Ziva sighed, shaking her head. "You are teaching her bad habits."

"What? No I'm not. Am I teaching you bad habits, Elsie?" He asked and she looked up at Ziva innocently, shaking her head.

* * *

"How could you!?" Ziva yelled as she stormed into the squad room, Tony trailing close behind.

"I don't know, it was a stupid mistake, I should never have done it."

"No. You should not have." She flung her coat at her chair and moved over to stand behind a very confused McGee.

"I'll never do it again." Tony said cautiously as he sat on the corner of McGee's desk with their colleague separating the quarrelling lovers.

"I should hope not."

"I'll make it up to you." Tony grinned.

She hesitated slightly, sitting on the other corner of the desk and leaning back on her hand. Her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed. "When?"

"Tonight?"

She looked away from Tony to her watch before locking eyes with him again and shaking her head. "Not soon enough."

"Okay. Lunchtime. We take a long lunch."

She considered his offer for a moment. "Both. Lunchtime and tonight. And this time you will not fall asleep!"

"Deal. Never falling asleep again. Don't know how I could…see, I think it was 'cause I was so tired after looking after Elsie and Mina…y'know what, we don't even have to discuss it…" He trailed off as her eyes flared with anger again. "You look sexy when you're mad at me, y'know that?" He grinned, running his eyes up and down his fiancée's body as she lounged on McGee's desk. She quirked a small smile, winking at him as her anger dissolved.

McGee coughed, alerting them to the fact that he was sat in between them. "I'm feeling really uncomfortable."

"Me too, McGee. What did I say about keeping this out of the office?"

"Gibbs, oh, um, we were just, uh…"

"Tony fell asleep during sex last night! I was just bargaining with him to make it up to me." Ziva defended herself as Tony's face fell and she smirked.

"You said you wouldn't tell anyone!"

"I decided that it would be to my advantage."

Tony looked between his colleagues, his jaw hanging open. "Boss, can you tell her she's wrong to do that?"

"You shouldn't have fallen asleep, DiNozzo." He shrugged. "Going down to Ducky. Get on with your work." He rounded the corner, then back-traced his steps. "Oh, and David, DiNozzo, either of you mention your sex-life again this week and I'll shoot both of you."

* * *

Gibbs coughed as his two agents started sneaking towards the elevator, making them both freeze and cringe. "Going somewhere?"

"Uh, yeah, actually. Lunch." Tony grinned the most charming grin he could summon and they turned around to face their boss.

"Good. You can bring back mine and McGee's orders, too." He smiled cordially and Tony's face fell.

"Oh, well, actually we, uh, we weren't going to our usual place, and um…see, Ziva was actually going to, um, cook our own lunches today, and she did, she, uh, made these little sandwiches, and she cut them into little triangles and wrapped them real neat and all, and…"

"Oh, really. What flavour were the sandwiches?" Gibbs asked, silencing them both.

"Honey."

"Tomato."

"Honey and tomato." Tony grinned. "It's a great combo. Not an obvious mix, but they really work. It's, uh, unique."

"Right. And so, if they're already made, why do you need to leave?"

"Well, see, Ziva told me to make certain that I picked them up this morning before we left, but I thought she said that she certainly had picked them up, and so I kinda forgot, and, um, so they're sitting in the fridge still."

"Why can't you get your usual lunch order today, and have the sandwiches some other time?"

"They do not keep very well, you see, Gibbs, and I am…really…craving honey and tomato sandwiches." She struggled to sound convincing, the thought of putting honey and tomato together making her feel queasy.

"There are no honey and tomato sandwiches, are there?"

"No Gibbs. No honey and tomato sandwiches." Tony shook his head.

"Can we stop saying honey and tomato sandwiches, please?"

"What's wrong with honey and to…I'll stop." Tony winced at his fiancée's glare.

"This is make-up sex."

"What?!" Tony screeched at his boss's words.

"You're going off, on your lunch break, for make-up sex because you fell asleep last night."

"Oh, right, I get what you mean, I thought you meant right now we were having make-up sex, and I was really worried that you thought this was what sex was like, because, you know, you should really get out more if that's the case, Boss…thank you, Boss, shutting up now, Boss." He nodded when he felt two hands hit his head, one Ziva's, one Gibbs'. He looked down to his fiancée to see her bright red face. Clearly she wasn't too happy with his attempt at distracting Gibbs off the subject of them leaving.

"You finished that cold case you were typing up, David."

"Yes, Gibbs."

"What about you, DiNozzo?"

"Ooh, uh, um. Nearly. There's just like a little bit, and I…no, Gibbs."

"And you think your little escapades are more important?"

"No, uh, but, no offense, but she scares me more than you do." He darted out of both of Gibbs' and Ziva's reaches, hitting the down button on the elevator and being grateful that it closed without letting either of them on.

And then he realised he had just shut Ziva out of the elevator. And called her scary.

"Oh, God. I'm dead."

 **I do not know what I am going to do for the next chapter. I have no ideas. Yet. It might be time for the first chapter that I have pre-written, or maybe I will have that as the one after the next, but either way, that is going to be an interesting one, so look out for that. Again, I do not know when it will be up, whether it be tomorrow, or next month, though hopefully not that long.**


	45. Chapter XLV

**We have jumped forwards a bit, to mid-to-late February. Ziva is about five months pregnant here, I think. There was going to be another chapter between this one and the last one, which actually had the first section of this in it, but I had a lot of problems with that one. And although I did try and make it work, I, uh, I had a bad morning this morning, with things going wrong again in life. It seems to be on a downwards spiral at the moment. Oh, well.**

 **To Debbie, your comment of why I do not just skip forward to the wedding. I have not wanted to because I know what chapter number I want the wedding to be. But, if things keep going wrong, I do have the wedding and the reception written up, so, depending upon how life pans out, those may or may not be up any time soon.**

 **This is the first of the chapters that I wrote a long time ago, those pre-written chapters that have their own folders and sub folders! Yay! Although, removing one file from the main folder actually had very little effect on its size. But that means more for you to read in the future. And faster updates for those chapters. Yay!**

 **I wanted to have DiNozzo Senior but was shocked to remember that we do not actually meet him until around one/two years after this is set. So, I am using a little artistic license and saying that we have already met him and had all of the introductions. Can we just pretend?**

 **Please?**

XLV. I Was Wise Enough To Never Grow Up, While Fooling People Into Believing I Had.

"They sure grow up fast, don't they Jethro?" Jenny said as they stood, looking over the team from the balcony. "It doesn't seem like five minutes since they were running around having rubber band wars and paper aeroplane competitions."

"That's 'cause it wasn't, Jen." He looked to his watch. "That was only 4 minutes and…36 seconds ago."

"You know what I mean." She rolled her eyes. "I still cannot believe that they're getting married in a month."

"Believe it. You're gonna have to walk down the aisle with Ducky." He smirked as she sighed.

"It's been a long time since I've been to a wedding."

"Not looking forward to it?"

"It's not that, Jethro. I guess…it's just a reminder that time slips away from us." She shrugged, watching as Tony walked over to Ziva's desk and perched on the edge, tilting her chin up to face him.

"You ever thought about getting married, Jen?" He scrutinised her face out of the corner of his eye.

"Once. A long time ago." She smiled sadly, lost in another time and place. "A very long time ago. But not recently. You?"

"Nope." He took a sip of coffee and turned away, walking along the catwalk towards the stairs.

She watched his retreating form. "Any advice?"

"Don't trip."

* * *

Gibbs growled at the piece of paper in front of him, hoping that his piercing glare would write the speech for him. Alas, the paper was unperturbed by the look that usually kicked DiNozzo into immediate action. He hated speeches. He hated weddings. He hated being stuck in a monkey suit. The last wedding he had been to had been his forth marriage. Since then he had avoided anything wedding-y. Until now. Now he was being sucked back in by a nervous, innocent look from his less than innocent Mossad liaison officer. But Ziva was more than just a liaison officer, more than just a member of his team – she was a member of his family. She had been ever since she slapped the back of his head and brought back his memory. He read his scratchy handwriting and scrunched up the paper into a ball, tossing it into the growing pile of identical paper balls. If Tony were there he and Ziva would have a field day throwing them across the bullpen to one another. He started again, hoping the words would come to him and failing. So he looked up to his thankfully quiet squad room – Tony and Ziva having gone to a doctor's appointment – and turned to their resident author and wordsmith.

"Hey, McGee."

"Yeah, Boss?" He looked up from his work.

"What's that word you and Abby are using all the time?"

The younger agent's face contorted in confusion. "Which word? You'll have to be slightly more specific."

"The one, you know, S…T…U…something or other. The one you were always saying Tony and Ziva had before they, you know, hooked up."

"Oh. UST. Unresolved Sexual Tension." McGee nodded and got back to his work before freezing in the middle of typing a word and looking up at his boss. "Gibbs, uh…why?"

"That's what they had, wasn't it?"

"Er yeah, in a way. Why?" Gibbs glowered at him and he nodded in realisation. "Oh, you're writing your Father of the Bride speech. I've already written my Best Man speech."

"Well, yeah, McGee. This is what you're good at. I…I don't use words."

"I'm sure they'll be happy with whatever you say, Boss. Trust me, I don't think they'll care if what you say is profound or simple. I think they'll only care that you tried."

"You don't think I know that, Elf Lord." He said gruffly, turning back to the piece of paper on his desk and balling it up, throwing it in the trash and starting over.

Again.

* * *

"Tony, what is wrong?" Ziva asked as her fiancée put his phone down. His face had fallen.

"My father's in town." He cringed, wishing he had picked up his phone when it rang and not left it to go to voicemail.

"Oh, he has not visited in so long." She smiled.

"It's not a good thing."

"Have you asked him about coming to the wedding?"

"He doesn't even know about us yet. I wanted to tell him face to face." Tony covered his face with both hands and made a strange moaning sound. "I hoped I would have more time."

"Tony, I am five months pregnant. We are getting married in a month. I think that time is not on your side."

"You might be right there." He muttered as his father stepped out of the elevator and looked around before spotting Tony. "Dad, you're early."

"Well, I wanted to see everyone, especially the lovely ladies you work with. I honestly don't know how you manage to control yourself." The older man said quietly. Tony the younger groaned and shuddered.

"Dad, please."

"What?" Senior asked, shaking his head at his son's cringe. "Ziva, how are you?" He grinned as he walked around the corner.

"I am very well, thank you." She smiled and stood up from her desk chair. "You look as handsome as ever."

"Whoa, Ziva, what happened?" He stared at her stomach, blatantly ignoring the compliment.

"I believe I am pregnant." She looked down and smiled, placing her hand on top of her bump.

"Congratulations." Her oblivious soon to be father-in-law smiled and kissed her cheek.

"Thank you." She nodded and returned back to her seat. Her eyes flicked to Tony and narrowed slightly. He shook his head slightly, unnoticeable unless someone was watching for it.

"When's the due date?"

"June." Tony stated, quickly changing the subject. "Not that I'm not happy to see you or anything, but what are you doing here Dad?"

"Well, I was passing through on business and I thought, whilst I'm here I might as well check in with you."

"Great. How long you gonna stay?" He sat at his desk and ran his hands through his hair.

"Well, that all depends on how well the business goes."

"Minimum, then." Tony crinkled his brow.

"A day or two." The original DiNozzo shrugged and grinned. "So how've you been, Junior?"

"Just peachy." _Junior_ sighed, sending a glare across to Ziva as she chuckled. A thunder of heavy booted footfalls came towards them accompanied by Abby's excited giggle. Both Tony and Ziva jumped up and ran to stop her.

"TONYYYYYY! I bet you're so excited for _mumph glumph meeph_ …" Ziva clamped her hand over Abby's mouth, reaching her just in time.

"He doesn't know yet." Tony hissed in her ear before turning back to his frowning father. Ziva released Abby.

"Well, I don't quite know what I'm supposed to be excited about, but I'm sure when I find out I will be." He chuckled.

"I'm certain you will be." The Goth grinned and both Tony and Ziva glared at her.

"There something I should know?"

"No." All three NCIS employees said in unison. Ziva and Tony returned to their desks.

"Uh, Dad, join me for dinner tonight." Tony said after Ziva and Abby both raised their eyebrows at him.

"Well, I did have plans…"

"It's important, Dad." Tony looked at his father, his expression sombre and serious.

"Well, if it is as important as you say then I am sure I can change my plans." He frowned at his son, wondering what could be so urgent.

"Thank you. I'll send you the address for the restaurant later."

"I have a, uh, business appointment that I have to get to." Senior raised his eyebrows and clapped his hands together, grinning the obligatory DiNozzo grin.

"Sure, Dad." Tony nodded and stood up.

"Well, it's been great to see you all, Abby, Ziva. Congratulations." He nodded to the pregnant woman before walking back to the elevator and walking in, not before smiling at another agent and beginning to flirt with her.

"One day he's gonna get me fired." Tony let out a low moan as he let his head fall onto the desk.

"Well, look on the bright side, Tony." Ziva looked up from the paper work on her desk.

"What bright side?" He sighed, curious as to what possible reason there was to be happy about any of it.

"Well, I do not know, but there must be a bright side for a dark side to exist, yes Abby?" Both agents turned to the scientist as she stood in the centre of the room.

"Her logic's sound." Abby shrugged. "It would just be a side if there was nothing to compare it to, and that's not very metaphoric of how you're feeling right now."

* * *

"You are sure you want me here?" Ziva said, placing her hand over his.

"How am I going to tell my father that I got you pregnant and we're getting married without you here?"

"I just want to make it easier for you." She smiled.

"If you weren't here to prompt me, I probably wouldn't even tell him." He laughed. "Thank you."

"Good choice on the restaurant." She smiled, nodding to their surroundings.

"Thank you, I spent a long time thinking about where to go." He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. He retracted his hand as he saw his father talking to the waiter. "Gagh. My father, your five o'clock." She turned around and smiled as Tony's father walked over.

"Junior, I didn't know we were having company for dinner." He smiled. "No, Ziva, you do not have to stand." He stopped her as she began to stand up in order to hug him.

"Thank you, although I do not mind." She shrugged.

"Your partner doesn't mind that you're out for dinner tonight with us?" DiNozzo senior asked, raising his eyebrows and pointing to her bump.

"He is not the boss of me." She flicked her eyes to her fiancé before looking back at his father. "I do not think it will be a problem." She smiled slightly and sipped at her glass of water.

"Dad, we, I, we need to talk to you." Tony looked at his father, furrowed his brow and then averted his eyes again, trying to work out how to broach the subject that he had spent the whole day worrying about. He glanced around the restaurant he had chosen, the one belonging to the hotel he and Ziva had stayed at when posing as assassins.

"This sounds serious. I hope I'm not in trouble." He laughed. "You're not ill are you?" He stared at the younger man opposite him, worry spreading across his face.

"No, no, nothing like that." Tony said quietly and shook his head slowly, a perplexed expression on his face.

"Then what is it, Junior?" Anthony's expression growing more and more worried every minute that Tony sat in silence. Ziva covered his hand with hers, stroking it slightly and smiling when he looked up at her.

"What are you doing next month, 21st?" Tony asked, the smile from Ziva giving him the confidence to continue.

"Next week I'm going to Milan, I don't know when I'll be getting back. Why are you asking?" He looked down at the couple's entwined hands and narrowed his eyes. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Well, er… I guess so." Somehow, Tony DiNozzo, Junior, master of words, really sucked at using words, or at least he did when he was talking to his father. "You see, Ziva and I…me and…we…there is a…well…we're gonna have a baby." He smiled.

"Two." Ziva laughed.

"Yes. Two. Twins." Tony grinned, a classic DiNozzo grin. His father smiled.

"Congratulations, Junior. This is why you want to know what I'm doing on the 21st?"

"Yeah. The wedding." He bit his lip. His father sighed.

"Junior, I'm going to Milan in a week. I don't know when I'll be back. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you know, it doesn't matter, I should have asked you earlier – not left it so late." Tony shook his head and rubbed his forehead. "It's my fault."

"I'm sorry, son." Senior finished his martini. "Look, I don't want to intrude, ruin your evening any more." He looked apologetically between the couple. Leaving money on the table, he stood up and looked at his son.

"Dad, you don't need to…"

"Junior, you don't need me around, getting in the way. I wasn't the best father in the world, and you don't need me ruining everything. You need any more," he tapped the money on the table, "you just call."

"Dad, no…"

"Tony, son. You'll be a good father. I'm proud of you." He smiled and patted the younger man's shoulder. "Take care of her." Tony stood up and hugged him. DiNozzo senior turned to Ziva, smiling. "Look after my son, Ziva." He hugged her. "Don't let him boss you around."

"There is no fear of that." She chuckled. "Are you sure you will not stay?"

"No, you two don't need me around."

"Dad…" Tony stood up as his father walked away before sinking back into his chair, grinning at Ziva and trying to hide the pain in his eyes.

"I am sorry, Tony."

"No, it's…what was I expecting, hey?" He shrugged, gritting his teeth.

"That does not mean that you should like the result." She placed her hand comfortingly on his back, rubbing it soothingly.

"Can we…can we just have dinner and go home and just forget this all happened? Please?" His expression was so pitiful that Ziva could do nothing but smile and nod, not all that shocked that he wanted nothing more than to curl up and hide from the world. "Thank you." The rest of dinner progressed in a sombre silence, both partakers finding comfort in the simple looks between one another, no need for idle chitchat. They communicated fine without vocalising anything.

Tony drove home, his hand only moving from where it was gently massaging Ziva's thigh when he needed to change gears. As he parked the car in their parking place and they both got out, he looked to her over the canvas top and laughed. "You know, I don't know what I'm complaining about. At least he treats me like a person. Your dad, he…"

"Tony, there is no excuse. For either of our fathers' actions." She walked around to him and reached up, placing a soft, gentle kiss to his lips and taking his hands in her own. She led him up the steps of their brownstone, keeping his hand firmly in hers the whole time. "I have a surprise for you." She grinned as she slipped her shoes off, walking towards the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

"Oh, yeah? And what would that be?"

"Well, you will have to be patient of course…"

"I can be patient. What's my surprise?" His mood seemed to pick up slightly.

"Come here and I will show you." He obliged, walking over to where she was stood by the sink. She took his hands and pressed her lips to his, smiling into the kiss when his hands moved, of their own volition, from her hands to the sides of her bump, his thumbs drawing invisible patterns through the cotton of her dress.

And then he jumped back, his face a picture of shock and confusion as he stared down at his left hand and the air filled with peels of Ziva's laughter. As soon as he realised what had happened, he moved back to her, pressing two kisses to her swollen stomach and rubbing his hand over the spot where one of the twins had kicked. "Did'ya feel that? Did'ya feel my little baby in there?" He grinned at her in the dark kitchen, the moonlight being the only illumination they needed for their private family moment.

"Yes, I did." She smiled as he pulled her into one of the biggest hugs he had ever given her, not before turning his attention back to her stomach and the small tap he had felt.

"It's amazing…" He whispered quietly, staring in awe.

"I felt them move about a month ago." She said and he looked up at her, hurt flickering across his face again.

"And you didn't tell me?"

"I did not tell you because you would not have been able to feel them too. I did not want you to feel left out. This evening, when you were talking to your father, I felt a proper kick for the first time, and I knew you would need something to make you smile." She said softly.

"And you kept quiet about feeling them for a month?" He looked incredulously at her as she nodded.

"I wanted to tell you, I really did, but I wanted you to be able to feel them too." She murmured, looking down. "Maybe it was the wrong thing to do."

"No! No. I like that you thought like that." He smiled, pulling her to him again. "I love it. And you're amazing, you know that?"

"For what am I amazing, Tony?" She sighed.

"For being able to keep something so exciting a secret for so long, just to make me happy."

"I love you, Tony." She looked at him like he was stupid. "I would do anything for you."

 **Does it feel unfinished. I think it does. I liked the ending when I originally wrote it, but now I am not so sure…**

 **I do not know what is happening in the next chapter. It might be the wedding. Or the night before the wedding. That one will be fun. Well, they both will. And so will the reception.**

 **Or the next one might be something completely different. How about another case? I know how much you all** ** _loved_** **the Jello case…**


	46. Chapter XLVI

**Okay. I am sad because this is not the 50** **th** **chapter like I had wanted it to be. Now, TivaRulesInGreece had a really good idea to fill up the chapters in between the last one and this one, and I was going to use it, and then… well, then I had another idea for it, so that will be in the next chapter, or maybe the chapter after.**

 **I had written this as two chapters, but then I added it all together.**

 **This is a fairly long chapter so I would advise you ensure you have enough time to read it. This is one of the chapters that I wrote up a while ago and just had to wait for it to slot into place, which means that it has been added to and edited many times. It should also mean that it should be free from any mistakes.**

XLVI. A Wedding is Like a Funeral, But With Musicians.

"TONY!" Ziva gasped awake in the dark, feeling for him and growing more panicked when her hand hit empty air.

"Ziva, Ziva, shh. Shh, it's okay. It's all okay. You're safe." Abby's voice was not the warm, rich voice she was searching for and it did not soothe her.

"Where is he?"

Abby sat on the edge of the bed, running her cold hand gently over Ziva's hot, sticky forehead, brushing away wisps of curly hair. "He's in a room down the corridor. McGee's guarding him, it's okay. Nothing's gonna happen." She smiled down at her friend and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "You wanna talk about it?"

Ziva hesitated slightly. "You remember when…when his mission was over? And his car…?"

"He wasn't in it, it's fine. Shh, now." She smiled, pressing another kiss to her forehead and running a hand over her friend's hair, watching as Ziva's eyes slipped closed again and her breathing settled down.

* * *

"Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up! It's today!" Abby groaned as the sound filled her head, rolling over and wondering where the side of her coffin went and why there was a child shouting in her ear. She cracked an eyelid open and looked up into Elsie's clear, grey eyes. And then she remembered. Hotel room. Wedding. Dress. She whimpered and stuffed her head under her pillow, blocking out the world. The pressure on her shoulder from where the child's hand had been released and she noticed Elsie's presence recede, moving away but not leaving the room. "Ziva, Ziva, Ziva, wake up, wake up, wake up!"

"No, Elsie. It is 0400h. You need to go back to sleep."

"But I can't! It's today! Wake up, please!"

Abby rolled off of the sofa she had slept on, leaving the two twin beds for Elsie and Ziva. "Sweetie, let's let Ziva sleep. She's got a long day today." She took Elsie's hand and smiled at Ziva. "I'll take her downstairs, see if we can help with anything. Get some more sleep."

"You do not have to do that, Abby. I can…"

"I'm not taking no for an answer." The Goth pouted. The sight made Ziva smile; Abby, her black hair down and messy and her black fleece skull-pattern onesie, holding Elsie's hand, whose hair was, if possible, even messier, and whose grey, excited eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. Abby pressed a kiss to Ziva's forehead and Elsie pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Sorry for waking you."

"It is fine." She smiled, settling back down and watching as the little girl started babbling and Abby led her out of the room. The three of them had shared the room, with Jenny in the room next to them.

* * *

"McGee, why've you got your handcuffs on you?" Tony laughed, dangling them in the air.

"Well, I uh…"

"You been spending the night with our Mistress of the Dark again?" He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.

"No! Tony!" He reached for the metal as Tony pulled it away, jumping onto the hotel bed.

"Then why've you brought them to my weddi…" He trailed off as it dawned upon him. "Oh. You thought I was gonna bail, didn't you?" He stepped off the bed, walking up to McGee menacingly.

"No, I…" He tried to deny it as he backed away, but Tony was, admittedly, a good investigator when he tried.

"I would never do that. I would never bail on my wedding. Not to Ziva. Never to Ziva. I couldn't do that to her."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have… I just don't want you to chicken out or anything, 'cause I know you'd regret it if you did, but I wasn't sure if you'd get nervous." He babbled, freezing when Tony clamped a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay. Thanks. Thanks for caring. You're a good man, McGee." He almost smiled.

"So, you sorted out the honeymoon yet?" Tim changed the subject, feeling uncomfortable with Tony's mellow mood.

"Yep, director has given us two weeks off. Spend tonight here at the hotel, then take the train up to Montreal. But Ziva doesn't know. It's gonna be a surprise." He grinned nervously.

"Why Montreal?" McGee asked as he straightened his tie, turning to Tony and rolling his eyes at the mess he had made of the length of fabric. "Have you never worn a bowtie before?"

"Well, I wore one for one of my dad's weddings, but I was like, 13, and it had this clip thingy, there was no tying involved." He struggled with the knot. "Where's Ducky when you need him?"

Just then the door to the hotel room opened and closed. "I am here, young Anthony. Oh, my. What are you doing to that poor tie?"

"Uh, I got a bit tangled."

"I think that is an understatement." He shook his head, sitting Tony down and fixing the tie.

"I remembered she mentioned it one time, in passing."

"What?"

"Ziva. She mentioned wanting to visit Montreal, years ago. She's never been there before. And since I don't want her flying, and her doctor doesn't want her flying, it just means a long train journey. What?" He looked at his best man's smile.

"You say I'm a good man, Tony, but how much credit do you give yourself? You really do love her, don't you?"

"Well, we wouldn't be here today if I didn't. I wonder how Aunt Nora's getting on with Ziva and the dress."

"Okay, so here's something I don't get."

"Only something, Probie?"

McGee ignored the jibe. "Why'd you call her Aunt Nora when she's not actually your aunt?"

"Same reason the twins will call you Uncle Probie. Her and Mum were best friends." Tony shrugged, looking down.

"Thanks, Tony. I don't think I say that enough."

"You don't need too. I know."

* * *

There was a knock on the door and Nora poked her head through. "How are we all this morning?" She smiled, walking into the hotel room with four dress bags.

"Good, thank you. How are you?" Jenny asked.

"I am very well."

"How is Tony?" Ziva asked from where she sat on the edge of the bed, running a brush through Elsie's short hair.

"I don't know yet. I've not been to see him. My first port of call was to sort out you and the dresses. I will check on him once I am finished here."

"But you will make sure he is okay?"

"His mother would never forgive me if I did not check on him on his wedding day. I promised her when she died that I would look after him on the biggest occasions of his life, and what kind of a best friend would I be if I broke that promise?" She shook her head. "But part of me looking after him is me looking after you. Now, have you had enough sleep?"

"Well, I do not think I will be getting any now, do you?" Ziva shrugged.

"I'll take that to mean that you did not." She sighed. "Oh, well. Too late now." There was the sound of a zip being pulled down as she held out the dress for Ziva. "Now, where's that lovely smile that Tony fell in love with?"

* * *

Gibbs let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding as Ziva stepped out of the hotel room, smiling shyly. He never though he would ever see the day that Ziva David looked shy. Her dress was soft ivory chiffon and fell to the floor in gentle cascades. Her hair was in ringlets, half up-half down, just the way Tony liked it, with small white flowers tangled into it. He straightened his tie and stood up slightly taller, proud of the woman in front of him. Truth be told, he never thought he would see Ziva David in a dress when not undercover. He simply could not imagine her wearing something that was not practical to run in. "You armed?" He questioned quietly as she hugged him.

"Now why would I need to be armed?"

"Because you're you?" She nodded in acceptance and pulled the dress up slightly, displaying the ankle holster on her left ankle and the knife that was strapped to her right. "That so you can still cut the cake if the hotel suddenly have a shortage of knives?"

"It is in case anything goes wrong." She shrugged, as if she were expecting something to go wrong. Gibbs just shook his head, trying to keep the smile from his face and failing.

"You look stunning. You know that?" He looked at her face. It was bare, free of make up. Another thing Tony liked.

"Well, it is all thanks to Abby and Nora and Jenny."

"No. I think it's natural." He pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Come on. Let's get this over with." She smiled up at him, knowing that he was not really grumpy that he was walking her down the aisle. Ducky and Jimmy appeared behind him as Jenny, Abby and Elsie emerged from the room. They each wore pale, mint green dresses of a similar style to Ziva's whilst each being slightly unique, whilst the men wore grey suits and skinny ties in the same colour as the bridesmaids dresses. Jenny handed Ziva her bouquet, created from simple cream roses edged with the same white blossoms that sat amongst her dark locks, and they all walked down the stairs and towards the hall that was being used.

Ducky held his arm out for the director and Jimmy mimicked the action towards Abby as Elsie ran over to Ziva and looked up. "Can I hold your hand, Ziva? Please?"

"I do not see why not." She smiled, holding her empty hand out to the child whilst Gibbs wrapped his arm around the one that held her bouquet.

* * *

"Ziva David. My beautiful, perfect Ziva David. I have never met anybody that I could love more than I love you, and I never will. You are my everything. You fill my head, every hour of every day. Every single morning, I wake up and I am grateful that you are stood by my side, because I would not want anybody else in your place. I would not want to play with anybody else's hair, or kiss anybody else's skin, or correct anybody else's confused idioms. My love for you increases every time I see your smile, every time I hear your laugh, every time I feel your touch. Love was always something unobtainable, something that I watched everyone else enjoy, knowing that it was something that I would never experience. But then you showed me love. You smiled at me; you gave me quiet words that can only come from your lips. When I was younger, I confused lust with love. You showed me that love is so much more precious. So much more special. And I will spend the rest of eternity trying to thank you for that."

"When I was younger I thought love was a curse. Everybody I have ever loved; my mother, my sister, my brother – they all died. And then I saw other people in love, and I decided that it must be me. I am the curse. I tried to shelter myself, stop myself from loving so I did not hurt anybody, and it worked for a time. I was not happy, but the people I loved had stopped dying, for there was nobody left whom I loved. And then you came along. Anthony DiNozzo. You turned my life upside down and inside out. And I could not help but love you, no matter how hard I tried, and I tried so hard it hurt. But you broke through all of my barriers, and you proved to me that I am not a curse, and nor is love. Love is a gift. Your love is a gift. It is a gift I shall cherish, along with you, until the end of eternity."

* * *

Tony stood up and looked out across all the people. He lifted his glass and tapped it with his knife, sending a fracture running up the side of the delicate stemware. "Ooh, ah. Um…let the record stand that I did not mean to break that glass." He handed it carefully to a waiter, accepting the replacement, and turned back to the small giggles from the guests. He beamed one of his best grins and started. "So, since you are at our wedding, there is a high probability that you know either Ziva or myself, or even both of us. If not then there will be questions later – we are both federal agents and we will use all of our powers to find out who you are and how you got in here." He grinned as everyone laughed. "So, with that part over, I want to get on with my actual speech. Today is really about how amazing Ziva is." He looked down and smiled at his wife, taking her hand in his and looking back to everyone. "She'll deny it of course. She always does. But she really is absolutely amazing. If you don't know her you are missing out on something, and if you do then I don't think you could ever want anything else.

"When I first met Ziva, I had just lost a friend, a colleague, a sister, and Ziva's goal was to stop our team from getting revenge." He felt her grip tighten on his hand. "But I didn't know that when she stepped off of the elevator. I was in fact imagining the dead colleague I just mentioned, Kate, naked." He winced as he received a slap to the head from Gibbs. "Thank you, boss." He nodded as Gibbs sat back down and the laughs subsided. "So I hadn't even notice Ziva arrive. But as soon as I saw her, I knew I loved her…"

"You are confusing love with lust again, my little hairy butt." Ziva interrupted and all of the men in the room erupted in laughter.

"Well, who could blame me? You were, and still are, the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on. So as I was saying, I was completely stunned by this beautiful young woman with a strange, mysterious accent who stood before me. She had her hair held back in this headband thing and she just waltzed in and slouched provocatively in the McGoo's chair." He grinned at the memory. "Anyway, we had a bit of a rocky start, which we really don't need to go into right now, especially since my boss looks like he's about to kill me."

"You gonna get on with it, DiNozzo. McGee's still got his speech."

"Don't forget yours, Boss." Tony grinned before looking away from Gibbs. "A month or two passed since I met Ziva, and we thought that was the last we would be seeing of her. So imagine my shock when I walk into the office with hangover and really not feeling so good to see her with her feet crossed on the desk opposite mine complaining about my punctuality? I was…unnerved."

"And looking like a porcupine." Ziva added.

"Yes, thank you, Sweetcheeks. I'd hoped you'd forgotten that one."

"Never." She grinned and shook her head.

"Now, you'd think it would be intimidating working opposite a trained assassin, wouldn't you? Well, you'd be right. I had so many things thrown at me in those first few weeks. And then, we had to go undercover as a married couple." He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows as Gibbs, McGee and the director all groaned. "It was the best weekend of fake sex I'd ever had!"

"DiNozzo!"

"Alright, moving on, but she saved me that time, which is what I wanted to say." He pointed out. "A few weeks later we were trapped in a horrible little metal transport container for a day, which is not a nice experience. Trust me on this, if you have the option of being trapped in a box or being shot, go with being shot. But, long story short, she saved me that time as well, or at least prolonged our lives long enough for Gibbs to find us. I think you can see where these anecdotes are heading. What I'm saying is that she is so amazing that she has, for some strange reason which I don't really understand, saved my life on so many occasions, and then for some strange reason decided that she'd marry me.'

"I saved you because I love you." She looked up at him. "Married you for a similar reason." She grinned.

"I love you too." He reached down and traced her cheekbone with a thumb. "Where was I? Oh, right. But, I would like it to be known that I have saved her on the odd occasion." He received glares from Gibbs and Ziva. "You're all probably wondering 'Great, Tony, but how did you two first get together?' because that is what humans all think of, according to Freud. Well, you see it was a case really. Gibbs had sent us over to Venice, which we didn't actually get to see much of really. But we did end up sharing a hotel room because McGee could not be bothered to find a hotel with two empty rooms. Anyway, we solved the case and celebrated by getting very drunk. You all know where this story is going, two very attractive, drunk federal agents sharing a hotel room – it would make a great film. McGee will probably write a book about it. We had agreed that it would just be that one night, and then that one night turned into one day and we agreed we would leave it in Italy. And then promptly forgot that we agreed to leave it in my dear homeland. So for two months we managed to keep our illicit little office romance hidden and secret, until one fateful night when McNosey's apartment flooded and he thought it would be a good idea to break into a Mossad officer's apartment whilst she was sleeping. McGee found out and promised to keep it a secret. Now, you might be asking me, 'why all the secrecy Anthony?' and I would reply by turning to my dear colleagues to recite for me our bosses rule number 12."

A chorus of "Never date a co-worker."'s sounded through the hall of people as all of team Gibbs called out the most hated of all of Gibbs rules.

"Precisely. See, Gibbs has this whole list of rules that we have had to learn in order to keep us safe and in his good books. So we followed another of his rules, rule 4, which states how to keep a secret. I won't go into detail, but it sort of goes 'the best way to keep a secret: keep it to yourself. Second best: tell one other person. No third best.' Which meant that we were at our second best already. We were on thin ice.

"At this point we were working a terrible case and we had two young girls in protective custody. I think they should be here somewhere. Elsie can you stand up and wave for me Sweetie?" He beamed as Elsie stood up on her chair and grinned. "So that's Elsie, she's the older of the two and the one person who I think I owe most of my thanks to, actually, but we'll come onto that in a second. Elsie was, after McGee, the next person to find out about Ziva and I. She caught us kissing outside the safe house and questioned us incessantly. I made her promise to keep it a secret and everything ran smoothly again. And then, unbeknown to me, Ziva had headed down to our dear friend Ducky in autopsy." He pointed to the old pathologist and Ducky blushed slightly. "Don't worry, don't worry, she wasn't ill. She went down there because she had some suspicions." He wiggled his fingers. "Ziva thought that she might just possibly be pregnant. She asked the Duckman to get Abby, our dark little friend, to run some blood tests, whilst keeping my identity a secret, and hers when it came to Abby. You see, Abby's ability to keep secrets is not, how should we put it? Very good?" He grinned. "And so the blood was anonymous. Which Abby didn't like and even though Ducky told her not to she ran DNA analysis on it. When it turned out to be Ziva, the secret was out almost immediately, and I was I think the last to know."

"No, the director and Jimmy did not know." Ziva looked up at him. "And it is not my fault that Abby told more-or-less everyone at NCIS."

"Okay. So I was third last to know." He sighed. "We had an argument without actually saying anything that night when she told me, and it was up to Gibbs to fix us. Apparently he had known all along with his famous gut. Despite his rule he got us talking and we lived happily ever after." He paused and shook his head. "Nope, not quite. Sorry. We then went up and took a joint shift watching Elsie and Mina and we got snowed in. I know. Nobody came to rescue us and we were trapped in a tiny log cabin. Tensions were running high. It was cold, we were tired and Ziva was pregnant and agitated. Never a good combination in an assassin." He shook his head. "So where this is going is that it was Elsie, in fact, who spotted that we were not talking. Or smiling. Or doing anything that would suggest that we were a happy couple. Granted she was the only other person capable of forming a sentence, Mina only being three months old. But, she still tried her hardest to get us to talk to each other about it. And I think it was her persistence that actually did make us talk in the end. That and her wise, insightful comments. So, I think really if she hadn't tried to help, and of course told the director all about us, I don't think we would be here to day. So for that I am grateful to Elsie. Oh and for keeping us on our toes when both her and her sister stay with us on our weekends off." There was a lot of laughing and ah-ing as she stood up on her chair again.

"Are we staying with you next week?" She called as the noise settled down.

"No, Sweetie, but you're gonna stay with Gibbs and Abby's gonna have a movie night with you."

"Can we watch James Bond?"

"You'll have to ask Abby." He grinned as she jumped off of her chair and ran over to their table, flinging herself into his arms. She had changed into a yellow t-shirt and denim dungarees and her feet were bare. He picked her up and turned back to the smiling faces. "So, as you can tell, it's not exactly been plain sailing, but here we are, happily in love and that is thanks to so many people who have helped with that, but most of all it is thanks to my beautiful, beautiful, loving, caring, amazing, kick-ass wife." He grinned and held the new glass of champagne up in a toast, leaning down and kissing Ziva. There was applause, which he bowed for until Gibbs hit the back of his head.

"Elf Lord, your turn." Gibbs said gruffly and nodded to McGee, who sat at Tony's side.

"Er, right." Tim stood up and looked around. "Um. Hi." He bit his lip. "As Tony has said, if you're here you must know one or the other, or both. If you know both of them, there is a high probability that you know me. If you don't then I'll introduce myself. I'm Timothy McGee. I work with Tony and Ziva. I generally respond to anything Tony or Gibbs call me; Elf Lord, Probie, McProbious, Probie-wan-Kenobi, McGoo, McGee, McGook, McFlowerPower, McNerd, McGoogle, McGPS, Probilicious, McEgghead, McGiggles… Really, anything you can think of, Tony has probably called me it at some point over the past few years.

"Tony had been working at NCIS for around three years when I officially joined team Gibbs. Back then we worked with Kate and when she was killed a year later there was a period of time where I for one was uncertain where things were going to go. Then, Ziva turns up saying she's been reassigned to our team and getting her words and idioms all muddled up. And, although it took time, she became family. To me she was like a big sister, to Tony a friend, and to Gibbs – well, he walked her down the aisle, what can we deduce from that?" There was laughter and he smiled. "They became partners. In both crime and crime-solving. I knew it was only a matter of time before Tony would corrupt her and they would start playing pranks on me together.

"Tony spent a lot of time talking about how amazing Ziva is, and I agree. She's brilliant. Scary? Yes. Intimidating? Definitely. But brilliant all the same. However, I don't think Tony really talked about how amazing he is, for once. Tony is like a brother to me. The annoying big brother who makes fun of you and places the blame on you whenever things go wrong. He teases me and makes fun of me and makes my life a living hell, and I don't think I want to live without it.

"Anthony DiNozzo is one of _the_ most annoying men on the planet. Most of the time he is either acting like a child, or blaming someone else for his acting like a child.

"But there are rare occasions when he will do anything for anyone. If you've had a real bad day, he'll cheer you up, or at least try. If your life is on the line, he'll sacrifice himself to save you. He is a good man. The best, after Gibbs." He raised his glass. "And so I wish you a good, happy marriage, with healthy children. And I promise, Tony, that even though I consider you to be one of my closest friends and I'm your best man and all, if you even consider hurting Ziva I will shoot you myself." A small snigger came from Abby and Tony and he rolled his eyes. "Okay, so maybe I won't, but I won't help you hide from Gibbs. Or Ziva. I would probably actually be rooting for them if it came down to it. Congratulations, Man." He nodded and sat down. The room fell silent after the laughs died down as everyone waited for Gibbs to stand up and make his speech.

"Gibbs, please." Ziva looked at him and he sighed. He stood up.

"Tony came to me a few years ago now. I don't really know how I ended up with 'im. Just did. And even though there are days when I question my judgement about him, I never fully regret the decision to let him stay. I trust him with my life. I trust Ziva with my life, too. She just turned up on the doorstep as well, but you've already heard her story. My team, they're like stray pups. You don't really want them, but they follow you round until you can't say no anymore, and then after a year or two, it feels strange when they're not there, following you. And, uh, I wouldn't be without them – God knows they've each saved my ass on the odd occasion, no matter how much danger they put themselves in to do so.

"Ziva's like a daughter to me. Tony's like a son. You can see how there might be some conflicting feelings about this whole thing. But they were made for each other. They're my team, my family. They'd give their lives for me and I'd give mine for them. I'm not great at weddings. Not great with marriage on a whole, McGee'll probably write a book on it someday when I'm dead and can't hit the back of his head for doing it. But I know love when I see it. I saw it when Tony was doing undercover work and Ziva had to watch him leave every day to be with another woman whilst he didn't even know how she felt about him. I watched as it broke her. I watched as she rebuilt the carefully crafted walls that she had knocked down to show him how she felt. I watched as she cried when watching a tape of Tony's car being blown up. She spent the morning believing he was dead and I saw her go to hell and back."

"You saw me crying?" She looked up at him.

"Yeah. I saw." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I watched as Tony flirted with her. I watched as Tony flirted with other women, just to see if he could get a reaction from her. I watched Tony fall head-over-heels in love with her. I watched as the unresolved sexual tension that Abs and the Elf Lord are always going on about grew so heavy that I thought we were all gonna be crushed by it. So I sent them to Venice. It was either gonna be Italy or Israel and I think I did a good job with Italy." He grinned. "They're family."

"Aww, thanks boss." Tony grinned up at him.

"DiNozzo, you lay a toe out of line, and I mean a toe, I will slap the back of your head so hard you won't have a toe to step out of line with. You understand me?"

"Yes boss." He gulped, knowing fully well that Gibbs meant every word, although he wasn't quite sure how slapping the back of his head was going to result in one less toe.

"Good. Goes for you too, Mrs DiNozzo." He turned to Ziva and she grinned.

"Thank you, Gibbs." She said quietly and nodded.

"Your welcome." He kissed her forehead and sat down. Abby jumped up almost instantly and smiled.

"Hi. I'm Abby." She gave a little wave. "I know that it isn't usually tradition for the bridesmaid to make a speech, but everyone else got to say what they wanted to about the happy couple and so I begged and I begged for Ziva and Tony to let me make a speech too, because I have a lot to say about them both. I don't want to talk about the past today, about how Tony met Ziva, how Ziva met Tony, how I met Tony, how I met Ziva, how they fell in love, because the way I see it today isn't about the past, or even the present really, I mean, you can see how happy they are just by looking at them." She paused, smiling at her friends. "No, I want to talk about the future. From what I can see, they're gonna have a great future. They'll have two beautiful twins in a few months who are gonna keep them awake at night an' make Gibbs the proudest grandfather in existence, they already bicker like an old married couple, so nothing can go wrong there, and they'll have each other for the rest of eternity. With Tony and Ziva, I can't see marriage changing anything. Everyone says marriage changes everything, but with Tony and Ziva they're already there. They are in love. If Tony makes a mistake Ziva makes him sleep on the couch until she gets lonely, if something goes wrong, they work as a team to fix it. Because that's what they are; a team, a unit, a family. Call it what you want, there is no denying what they have. They have family.

"Sometimes I envy them, because they have a family, but then I realise that I have nothing to envy because I am part of that family, that unit, that team. Because their family doesn't just comprise of them, it comprises of all of us. Everyone in this room. We're their family. We each love them more than it feels physically possible sometimes. We'd all do anything to help them. I know that I for one worry every time they go out on a mission. Every time I see them pick up a bulletproof vest, I worry that they're not going to come back to me in one piece, or they're not going to come back to me at all. They're going to have kids, in a few months actually, and I have seen both of them worry about what will happen if they don't come home one day. But I know that if that does happen, which I really hope it never does, we'll all be there. We'll be there for them. We'll be there for their children, because they're our family, and we do anything for family. Because that's what family is, really. Family has nothing to do with blood. Well, it has a little to do with blood, but not much. What family really is, is a group of people who love one another unconditionally and would do anything for each other. That is what we have. We have family." She smiled and sat down as Tony raised his glass.

"To family."

"Family."

* * *

Tony looked at his new wife across the room as Tim dimmed the lights. He grinned at her as they both walked into the centre of the empty dance-floor and the music began to grow. _Moon River._ He smiled at the choice. They met and began a slow waltz, carefully, gently. They twirled around the room, everyone's eyes on them, and the silent smiles on their family's faces flickering past. They returned back to the centre of the room, slowing down, and Tony took his jacket off, throwing it to Gibbs. "Okay, people, let's make this a bit more interesting. Hit the switch, McDJ!" He spun around and pointed to where McGee and Abby were sat with the electronics. Coloured lights angled towards the dance-floor lit them up and Tammi Terrell began singing _You're all I need to get by_ , the pace of the dance sped up, taking on a more Latin vibe. The music cut again, this time to _Baby, you've got what it takes_ and the style altered slightly again. The next cut was to _Perfect day_ , the final jump of the music, and they dissolved back into a waltz, gradually slowing down until the song tapered to the end. Ziva reached up and kissed him as the coloured lights faded away and the normal lighting was raised slightly, although still keeping the ballroom dim. They walked over to their table where Gibbs, Ducky, Jimmy and Jenny sat as the applause died down.

"You looked beautiful out there, Ziva." The director smiled as she hugged her. "And you looked very dashing, Tony. I had no idea you could dance."

"Well, along with piano lessons, my mother thought it a good idea for me to take dance lessons as a child, and so until the age of ten I danced." He laughed. "I never thought I would need to know anything I was taught." Tony kissed the top of Ziva's head as she leaned into his chest, one arm still wrapped around his waist whilst his was around hers.

"Oh, my gosh, Ziva, that was amazing!" Abby squealed as she ran over, the skirt of her black, knee-length dress billowing out behind her. "You looked so good out there." She hugged her friend. Everybody was smiling. She liked it. McGee was trailing closely behind her, although not running, it might be added.

"Thanks for that, Probie." Tony said to his best man, nodding and laying his hand, the one that had been resting on Ziva's hip before Abby had torn her away from him, on his shoulder. "I mean it, Tim." He said more seriously.

"I know you do." Tim nodded and smiled. "You two really do look good together."

"Ziva looks good with anyone." Tony's smile was gentle as he watched Gibbs lead his wife onto the dance-floor again and they danced softly, nothing complicated, just swaying elegantly from side to side. His Wife. He liked the sound of it. It felt good, the idea that he could introduce her like that. _'Hello, I'm Tony, this is my wife, Ziva.'_

The cream chiffon of her dress fell elegantly over her bump and the white blossoms braided into her hair contrasted elegantly with the dark curls that cascaded down the sides of her face. She laughed at something Gibbs whispered in her ear, her eyes crinkled in the corners and her grin widened.

"You're a lucky man, DiNozzo." A voice said beside him and he turned to see a familiar face.

"We didn't think the invite even reached you." Tony said to Mike Franks. "And even if it did, we didn't think you would come."

"And miss a fiesta?" He laughed.

"Good point." Tony nodded.

"Mike!" Abby ran over. "How are you?"

"So much better now I've seen your lovely face." He grinned charmingly and kissed her cheek.

Tony smiled as Ziva walked back over. "I love you." He murmured into her ear as she leaned against him, nestling her head under his chin.

"I love you too, Tony." She yawned.

"I'm sorry, is our wedding boring you?" He laughed and led her over to a group of chairs where he sat her down.

"It has been a long day." She smiled. "The director and Gibbs look good together." Ziva nodded to their bosses as they danced together, the mint colour of Jenny's dress matching the grey of Gibbs' suit perfectly.

"Well, what do you expect?" Tony shrugged and grinned. "You look beautiful." He smiled, kissing her cheek.

"Ziva, do you mind if I dance with Tony?" Abby bounded over.

"Be my guest." She smiled, nodding.

The Goth pulled Tony up from his chair and dragged him over to the central area. Ziva laughed as she watched her husband dance with her best friend. It was gawky and jittery and very, very Abby.

"That was very beautiful. Not surprizing." DiNozzo, Senior, shrugged as he sat next to her.

"I thought you were in Italy." She smiled.

"I didn't want to miss my only son's wedding. Especially when it is to such a beautiful woman." He flashed a trademark DiNozzo smile, one that both father and son had perfected, and she laughed. "How are my grandchildren?"

"They are quite fine. They are very active." She smiled as Tony walked over.

"Just like their mother." He grinned and pressed his lips to hers, breaking away when he remembered his father. "Thank you, Dad." He nodded.

"You're welcome." His father shrugged. "You looked good out there."

"Well, Mum did put me through all those dance lessons, and Ziva did dance as a child." Tony laughed, placing his hands on his wife's shoulders. "And she is a very beautiful woman."

"And you are a very handsome man." She took his hand in hers and looked up at him. "Who is about to meet my Aunt Nettie." Her smile fell as she stood up, a cringe replacing it.

"From Tel Aviv?" His voice squeaked, remembering the fateful phone call he had made. "Who I am never, ever to contact?"

"The very one. I did not think she would even come, since nobody else from Israel has."

"So why is she here?"

"Because she has been waiting for this day since I was twelve and I am naïve to think that anything would get in her way – even my father – to come and see this." She muttered and smiled, gripping Tony's hand just that little bit tighter as an older woman who resembled Ziva walked over.

"Ziva, dear child." Tony didn't understand the Hebrew.

"English, Aunt Nettie." She reprimanded, knowing that her aunt could speak fluent English.

"You looked beautiful." The older woman grinned as Ziva blushed. "Are you going to introduce me to your husband?"

"Nettie, this is Anthony DiNozzo."

Tony held his hand out for her to shake. "Tony, please."

"I recognise your voice, young man." His faced filled with fear. "You were the man who phoned as Ziva's husband, yes?"

"Er, maybe." He chuckled nervously, his father tilting his head in confusion.

"Well, I am glad you have made it official."

"Nettie, Tony and I were not married before today. It was just a… misunderstanding, like I told you."

"If you insist." It didn't sound like she believed it. "You look beautiful today. Never did I see such a sight as your lovely face smiling. I have not seen you smile like that in such a long time." The old woman smiled, pressing a kiss to each of Ziva's cheeks. "You must call more often. I do not hear from you enough. And I want to see more of you, even if just in photos. You look taller again."

"Nettie, I stopped growing when I was sixteen."

"No, no, you are taller." She looked Ziva up and down, then turned to Tony. "She is taller, I am telling you. She is too stubborn to admit it, but she is taller."

"I don't doubt that." Tony smirked at his wife's glare.

"Do not encourage her." She hissed in his ear and he grinned, turning his head and kissing her, catching her off guard.

"She has grown more beautiful too."

Ziva sighed and shook her head. "Nettie…"

"I brought a surprise for you." Her aunt interrupted before she could finish.

"Nettie, you did not have to bring anything." Ziva scolded lightly, shaking her head some more. "I cannot accept anything from you. Really."

"He's in the bathroom as we speak. You know, he is always going to the bathroom – I think the man has a problem." Ziva looked up as a short, bald man walked out from the corridor leading to the bathroom and grinned.

"Oh, you are wonderful!" She kissed the shorter woman's cheek and pulled Tony over to the older man. "Shmeil! My brilliant Shmeil!"

"My dearest Ziva, how are you?" He grinned.

"I am well."

"I see there is more than one thing that nobody in the Middle East knows about." He pointed to her bump and she frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean your father has been very tight legged about this whole thing. If it were not for Nettie telling me about it on her last visit, I would not have known you were even getting married."

"I sent invites."

"And we did not receive them. Your father has not even told anyone he was expecting a grandchild."

"He is ashamed." She prickled slightly and leant into Tony's side.

"I am sorry, Ziva my child."

"It is not your fault dear Shmeil. You could have done nothing about it. You are here now and that is all that matters." She smiled softly. "This is Tony."

"It is very nice to meet you Tony." Shmeil smiled and shook his hand.

"Shmeil is a friend of mine."

"I have known her since she was three years old."

"Tight lipped."

"Pardon?"

"It's tight lipped, not tight legged."

"American idioms." Ziva muttered and rolled her eyes, making Tony laugh.

"Are you to become an American now, Ziva?"

"There is a lot of paperwork being filled and filed and sent off and received. It is tiring." She took his hand gently and placed it on the side of her stomach. "Do you feel one of my babies kicking?" She grinned as his face lit up.

"My Ziva is going to be a mother."

Tony let go of her hand quickly and grabbed Elsie before she could barrel into his pregnant wife, swinging her into the air. "Hey there, Kiddo." He grinned as she laughed. "What have I said about being careful?"

"That I mustn't hurt Ziva or the babies if I want to be allowed to visit them when they are born." She recited the words he had drilled into her.

"Alright." He placed her down and she patted Ziva's bump.

"Can they hear me?"

"They can hear some things." Ziva laid a hand on her head and smiled. She would be wanting her hair cut soon, it was getting long again. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Yeah!" She started jumping up and down and Tony and Ziva couldn't help but see the resemblance to Abby in that moment. Alison walked over with Mina and handed the young child over to the bride.

"You look beautiful."

"Thank you." Ziva nodded, now fully absorbed in playing with Mina's hand.

"Who are the children?" Shmeil asked Tony as they both watched her move over to a table and sit down with the two girls, laughing and playing.

"The sisters we were protecting when she found out she was pregnant. We got snowed-in and were stuck in this tiny log cabin for a week." He smiled at the memory. "We have joint custody of them with their foster parents." He nodded to Alison and Dave.

"I never thought she would ever have children." Shmeil shook his head. "She is always so busy with work, and in her line of work there is not exactly time for a family."

"I know. That's what she worries about. Neither of us wants to give up our work, even if it is for the twins."

"Twins?"

"Yeah, two babies. We are going to have a very loud house on the weekends we have Elsie and Mina."

Shmeil paused, watching her play with the two children, her face alight. "I was not referring to how much time she spends at work so much as how much life it takes away." He looked at Tony's frown. "She was not expected to survive this far. She was assigned too many missions that she should not have returned from."

"I know." He sighed. "She's been through a lot."

"I am sorry to bring the mood down on such a joyous occasion."

"No, it's fine." Tony shook his head, brushing it off. "It's a reminder of how well she has done and how lucky we both are to be here today."

"I am very proud of her. She has exceeded all expectations and gone against all of the pre-set paths her father has given her. She has grown into a fine young woman and you are a lucky man to have her."

"I really don't think I deserve her most of the time. She's too good for me."

"My Ziva is a good judge of character. She must have seen something good in you to have fallen in love with you."

"Maybe love has blinded her." He looked to Ziva and smiled when their eyes met.

"No, even when drunk, she has the ability to keep a clear head."

"Yeah, but her memory isn't so great when she's drunk." Tony smirked. "The night we first…" He trailed off, realising it wasn't the sort of conversation you had with an old family friend of your new wife. "Anyway, when we woke up, neither of us could remember the night before. Even with both of us piecing together the bits that we did know, there were still gaps. Still are." He smiled. "I was worried it was just the alcohol that made us…" He trailed off again.

"No, she always makes the right decision."

"Even when intoxicated with love? Love's infinitely more potent than alcohol."

"Always." He smiled and patted Tony's arm. "You know, I remember when Ziva was just four years old she had this beautiful smile, one that lit up the whole world and made strangers turn and admire her in the street. She could steel the hearts of anyone who dared to look for too long at her radiance – that is what her name means. I have not seen that smile in so long, it had been taken from her after all she has seen. It was not until this afternoon, when I saw her face as she walked down the aisle that I saw it again. She was looking at you."

"I see you are getting along." Ziva smiled, walking over and leaning into Tony's side. He wrapped his arm around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"He's an interesting man."

"You have not been telling your tales again, have you Shmeil?" She grinned. "This man could tell a story to rival Ducky."

"We'll have to put that to the test later." Tony laughed, scanning the room for the old pathologist and seeing him dancing with Abby, a wide, happy smile on his face.

"May I dance with your wife?"

"Of course. Who am I to deny such a good man a dance with a beautiful woman?"

"You are the beautiful woman's husband. Congratulations." An accented voice said from behind them.

"José! How'd we do?" Tony spun around to face the younger man.

"You do better every time you dance it. I have nothing to fault."

"José speaks too kindly. We messed up the turn."

"No, Ziva. You did not. You danced perfectly, as always." He smiled, kissing her cheek. "Now dance with Shmeil, he is always eager to dance with beautiful women." He nodded to Shmeil and paused as the older man took Ziva's hand and led her away. "Tony, you must send your children to dance with me."

"I don't know, José. I…"

"Money will not be an issue, Tony. I can see what you are thinking. You are thinking, José has a large studio, he will charge me a fortune. But no, I will not. Not for children of Ziva. You are family, Tony. Family does not pay."

"I was actually thinking that Ziva will probably want a say in it." He laughed. "But if my kids want to dance, I know where to send them."

"TonyTonyTonyTonyTonyTonyTony!" Elsie tore across the room and grabbed his hand, tugging him towards the dance floor. "Alison said it is time to go to bed, because it's late, but I don't want to and I want to dance with you because I am not tired and I really, really don't want to go home and Dave said I can dance with you and then dance with Ziva and then I have to go home." She gushed in an Abbyesque manner.

"Okay, Sweetie." He laughed, lifting her up and standing her on his feet as the next song started. "Have you enjoyed today?"

"Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!" She grinned and tried to hide a yawn.

"How much sugar have you had today?"

"Not much." She shook her head, yawning again. "Have you enjoyed today, Tony?"

"The best day of my life." He looked up to where Ziva was dancing with José, his wife's head on her friend's chest.

"I love you and Ziva, Tony." She said quietly, pulling her hands from his and wrapping her arms around him. He looked down at her and smiled slightly before picking her up and letting her rest her head on his shoulder, bringing his eyes up to lock with Ziva's. She smiled at him; a warm, relaxed smile. He noticed a quiet snore coming from his shoulder and looked down to see Elsie fast asleep in his arms.

He walked to Alison, Dave and Mina, the baby sleeping in Dave's arms. "Hey." He said quietly. "She's uh, she's asleep."

"Okay. We'll take that as our cue to leave then." Alison smiled.

"You're still staying here tonight though?"

"Of course. Do you really think Elsie will let us get away with missing breakfast with the happy couple?"

"Very true. She can be stubborn."

"Don't we know it? But I don't think we'd be without them." Dave looked between them and sighed.

"Uh, do you mind if Ziva and I, y'know, tuck them in? Please?"

"Sure. Not a problem." Both foster parents nodded in agreement as Ziva walked over.

"We're gonna tuck the girls in. That okay?"

"Mmhm." She nodded, brushing the elder of the two sisters' fringe out of her face. "She looks so peaceful. You do not think we will be missed, do you?"

"Nah. I don't think anyone even knows we're here." Tony joked and she rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"Tony, what will people think if we can not be found at our own wedding?"

He snorted. "Exactly, it's our wedding. We can leave when we want. Besides, I don't think one extra rumour circulating about us will really make much of a difference to the millions already enjoyed by the NCIS workforce." He gave her a simple shrug.

"What will my Shmeil think, my Aunt Nettie? Your father? Your Aunt Nora?" She scowled.

"Dunno. But Nora and your aunt seem to be getting along really well." He pointed to one of the corners, where the two women, the one with the bright blue hair and the one with the grey hair, sat gossiping, laughing about the happy couple and their memories of the two partners as children.

"Great. Now we will never get them apart." She leaned her head on his other shoulder. "I guess they have a lot in common." He frowned at her and she explained. "Neither of them like our fathers."

* * *

"I think we're gonna head upstairs now." Abby and McGee smiled, the last of the guests left in the dance hall. They were sharing the room that Ziva, Abby and Elsie had shared the previous night.

"We'll probably be heading up soon too. Thanks for coming and being here and everything."

"And the speeches. The speeches were brilliant." Ziva smiled, kissing Abby, then McGee's cheek.

Tony kissed Abby's cheek, pulling her in for a hug, then turned to McGee, opening his arms. "Come on, McGee. Bring in the McGeeky love." He flashed McGee the craziest eyes he could and started chasing him around the hall.

"Tony." Ziva grabbed his arm as he ran past, stopping him in his tracks. "Stop."

"Yes, Dear." He flinched as she smacked his arm, lightly for her. "Night, Kids. Don't do anything stupid."

"Goodnight, Abby, McGee."

"Night, Guys. Have fun!" They called as they headed out of the ballroom, leaving the couple alone.

"You realise that amongst all of the talking and greeting and hugging and laughing we only danced together once?" Tony frowned as he walked over to the electrics. He hit a button, dimming the lights again, and turned some gentle music on quietly, so the lyrics were indistinguishable. He moved back over to her, taking her by her hands and brushing his lips against hers softly. "May I have this dance, Mrs DiNozzo?"

She lowered her voice to match his quiet whisper. "Yes, Mr DiNozzo. Yes, you may."

 **This was actually a real pain to upload. It took me nearly an hour, and I have no idea why, but every time I tried it kept crashing. But it is done now.**

 **I am going to be away for a little over a week again, with limited-to-no access to internet. Sorry. I thought I would get this uploaded now though so you are not left without an update, because I am a nice person. No, I really am not, or at least I do not think I am. Anyway, once I get back I will be super busy with all of the work that I have neglected to do in favour of sleeping recently.**


	47. Chapter XLVII

**Why is 'goodnight' a word, but 'goodmorning' not? I do not understand English sometimes. And, for some reason, my laptop decided to change my default language from English(UK) to English(US). Twice. I have no clue why, since it has never done that before.**

 **This hit 200 reviews after the last chapter! I love that; it made me jump up and down in the middle of the office.**

 **So, the last chapter was a long one. I did some maths, because I enjoy numbers, and came up with this little statistic. Before the last chapter, I was averaging 1802.56 words per chapter. Now, that average has gone up to 1974.04, an increase of 141.48. Statistically speaking, that is a large increase of an average with only one extra piece of data. I think the last chapter was an anomalous result.**

 **This was going to be different. I promised last chapter that I would use TiveRulesInGreece's idea, because it is very good, but it became too difficult to write, but in any case, even though I liked the idea of the original chapter more, and I liked the parts that I wrote up more, this is happier.**

XLVII. Our Honeymoon Will Shine Our Life Long: Its Beams Will Only Fade Over Your Grave Or Mine.

"Good morning, Mrs. DiNozzo." Tony grinned as his wife's eyes fluttered open.

"Good morning, Mr. DiNozzo." She gave him a gentle kiss before nestling her head back down onto his shoulder.

"Sleep well?"

"Very." She sighed contently. "Why did you wake me up?"

"Because we've got to go down for breakfast. And then we have to say goodbye to everyone."

"Why?" She looked up at him, alarmed. Goodbyes were never a good thing.

"Well, you want to go on our honeymoon, don't you?"

"I thought we agreed that we were not having a honeymoon?" She asked skeptically.

"I wanted to surprise you. Can a husband not surprise his wife?"

"No, not when he agreed on no honeymoon. What will Gibbs and Jenny say? We have not booked any time off of work."

He shrugged and pressed a kiss to her lips. "Jenny presumed we would be wanting a week or two off of work anyway. Oh, and she packed your bags, so you cannot even use that as an excuse."

"I was not…I was not trying to find excuses…" She defended.

"You know, usually, wives want to spend time with their husbands, particularly if their husbands are as awesome as I am."

She looked at him and scoffed. "Since when I have been put into the category of usual?"

"True." He tilted his head in acceptance, placing his hand over her bump and smiling when she placed hers over his and moved it slightly so he could feel one of their twins kick. "You know, I thought you were going to make some comment about me not being awesome."

"Now why would I do that, my Little Hairy Butt?"

* * *

"And you're certain that you don't serve Caf-Pow?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Well, what sort of an establishment is this place? You don't serve Caf-Pow. It's unacceptable, that's what it is."

"Abs." Gibbs voice broke in gruffly and a red disposable cup was dangled in front of her, stopping her from berating the hotel staff any more.

"You're a lifesaver, Gibbs. I'll love you to the end of the earth." She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to his cheek, leaving a deep purple lip mark.

"Nope, you'll just love me until Caf-Pow goes out of business." He took a sip of the coffee he had brought from the Starbucks around the corner. It was not as good as his usual coffee shop, but it was coffee and that was all that mattered. "They down yet?" He looked around the breakfast room, scanning the faces for the newlyweds.

"Not yet." Jenny said as he sat down next to her at the head table, with McGee and Abby on the other side of a two-seat gap. Jimmy was next to Abby and Ducky next to Jenny. "Jethro, it was their wedding night last night. You remember your wedding nights, don't you?" That comment earned her a glare.

"She's six months pregnant, Jen. Kinda puts a damper on things."

"Yeah, and it's Tony and Ziva. Their sex-life is probably more active than the rest of this hall's added together."

Gibbs grimaced and McGee groaned, whilst Abby smirked and Ducky chuckled. "You want me to start hitting the back of your head too?"

"I'm your superior, Gibbs. That would hardly be appropriate."

"Not here you're not. I'm sat next to Ziva, which makes me more superior than you."

"Ziva's not down yet." She stuck her tongue out at him and he rolled his eyes.

"Oh, real mature."

"Now, now, you two. We do not need any more adolescent behavior than we already have from Abigail and Timothy, and no doubt Mr and Mrs DiNozzo when they finally decide to grace us with their presence."

"Talking about us again are you, Ducky?" Tony said from behind, making the whole table jump. "Ziva's just gone to the ladies room, she'll be here in a second. She's been teaching me to sneak up on people." He grinned proudly, screeching when something blew against his ear.

"Yes, and you are getting very good, Mon Petit Pois." Ziva smirked, kissing his cheek and sitting down next to Gibbs.

"What have I told you about creeping up on me like that?" He pouted, sitting between her and McGee.

"I believe you told me not to do it again, but I could not help myself." She grinned, pressing another kiss to his cheek. "But I think I can get away with it now."

"Wonderful. My life expectancy has just decreased ten-fold." He muttered sarcastically before flashing her his prize-winning grin and entwining his hand with hers. "At least it will be a happy few years, albeit a short few years."

* * *

"You must call, Ziva. I miss hearing from you. Once a year is just not enough." The older woman held Ziva in a vice-like grip.

"Yes, my child. Our world is not as bright without your radiance."

"Shmeil, do not be so overdramatic. I will only phone so long as you come and visit more often. You want to see my babies, yes?"

"Of course we do." Nettie pressed a kiss to her forehead then turned to Tony. "Now young man, I presume that you will take good care of my Ziva for me; she may not look like it, but she does need love, and she needs someone to look after her. And I hope that you will be making sure she phones at least once a month. Do you understand me?"

"Er, yeah." He grinned and kissed the back of her hand, making he blush.

"Such a gentleman." She smiled, giving Ziva a final hug. "Take care of yourself."

"I love you."

"Well, there is no need to get so sentimental about it." She smiled. "My Ziva, all grown up…" Ziva chuckled, looking over to where Shmeil was talking to Tony.

Do not let her boss you around. A man needs his strength, and if you let her boss you around then you have nothing. But still, do what she says, because you do not want to be on her bad side."

"No, Sir, I certainly don't."

"Sir? What is all this Sir business? It is Shmeil to my friends, and any friend of Ziva is a friend of mine."

"I'll take care of her for you." He smiled soberly. "I'll keep her safe."

"You better, because I can be quite intimidating when I want to be."

Ziva snorted. "No you cannot, Shmeil. You are too good to be intimidating." She gave him a hug, pulling away and almost being knocked over by Abby as she barreled into her. "Abby, we are going to be away for two weeks. We will be back in no time."

"But Ziva, two weeks is like… a twentieth of your pregnancy. That's ages. When you get back you're gonna be huge!"

Ziva raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"Not in a bad way, but you'll be two weeks closer to having the babies, and they'll be so much bigger and, and, and…"

"Calm, Abs."

"Sorry, Gibbs, but it's so exciting and what if something happens?"

"Nothin's gonna happen, Abs. We'll be fine." Tony pried her off his wife and kissed her cheek before handing her over to Gibbs.

"Take care of them for me, Jen. I want them all safe and alive when we get back." Ziva whispered in her maid of honour's ear.

"I will, don't worry." She smiled and watched as Ziva kissed Gibb's and McGee's cheeks before taking Tony's hand and sitting in the back of the '56 white Ford Thunderbird: Tony's choice of car. They both waved as the driver pulled away in the direction of the station.

"Ready, Mrs DiNozzo?"

"Always, Mr DiNozzo."

 **I am not going to write the honeymoon. Sorry, but I just… I was going to, but now I am not, so you will just have to use your wonderful imaginations to imagine your own. It was also very short. Sorry about that, too.**


	48. Chapter XLVIII

**There is a fly in the room that is driving me insane.**

 **Remember to read the last chapter if you have not already!**

 **This is probably the fastest update we have had in a while. Exciting, I know. It will probably not be happening again for a while I am afraid, although, thinking about it, once the next one is done, I have a few chapters already completed. This was basically just fluffy filler, like the last chapter and like the next chapter, probably. After that we have some more action.**

 **This is split over two days. I think you will be able to work out the change in day, but I wanted to have a specific chapter as number 50, as I did not have the wedding as number 50. They were both prewritten chapters, but needed some polishing up. The next one is already half finished too, as is chapter fifty.**

XLVIII. One Of The Things That Makes Me Who I Am Is The Loyalty I Have To People I Hold Close To My Heart.

"Ziva, I wasn't looking at her." Tony trailed behind his wife as they exited the elevator.

"You were, I saw you!" She snarled, slamming her bag down on her desk and making every agent on the forth floor jump. "You and your damn elevator eyes!"

"Sweetcheeks, I promise that I wasn't looking."

"Call me that again DiNozzo and I will shoot you." He backed away, raising his hands in surrender.

"I didn't even notice her!"

"How do you know you were not staring if you did not even notice her?!"

"Because I wasn't staring at her!"

"I am going down to Abby's lab. At least there I am appreciated!" She stormed out, leaving the MCRT in various states of stunned silence. When they heard the ding that signalled the elevator doors closing Gibbs grinned.

"Well, she's in a good mood."

"What did you do this morning, Tony?" McGee sighed.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We were walking from the parking garage and all of a sudden she starts having a go at me for staring at some woman who I didn't even notice! I wasn't staring!"

"Then why does she think you were, DiNozzo?" Gibbs raised his eyebrows and tried to hide his smirk.

"I have no clue, Boss!" He threw his hands up in despair as both other agents tried to hide grins.

"So, how'd the honeymoon go?" Gibbs asked and McGee sniggered.

"The honeymoon was great. My wife is amazing and we love one another more than life itself. Life was perfect until she flipped out at me just now for something I didn't do." He slumped down into his chair as his boss and partner could contain their laughter no longer. "Hey, the day you two marry pregnant assassins is the day you two can laugh. Until then, I advise you hide everything sharp from her."

"DiNozzo, she doesn't need something sharp to kill you. Her bare hands will do."

"Thanks for that, Tim. You're a great friend." Tony muttered sarcastically. "What am I going to do?"

"Apologise?"

"Didn't you see me try?"

"No, I saw you deny all charges." Gibbs said, standing up and walking over. "Of course, if that doesn't work you could always give her these." He held his hand out, proffering new ID cards with Ziva's face on them and a nice little 'Special Agent David' printed next to the image.

Tony's eyes lit up as he stared at them. "My wife's a full NCIS Agent. She's gonna be so happy. Thanks, Boss." He jumped up and jogged over to the elevator, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he waited for it to open up.

"So, you're not going to tell him the price those come at?" Jenny said from where she had been lounging on the intermediate landing of the stairs from the catwalk, observing the whole exchange.

Jethro looked up and smirked. "What, and ruin their day? And then make them think it was me who was ruining their day? I don't think so, Jen. This is your doing, you'll be the one to break it to them." He started walking back to his desk before pausing and turning round. "Of course, if you don't feel up to telling Ziva that you're putting her on maternity leave today, then you can always leave it until tomorrow."

* * *

Abby watched as her friend sat in the ballistics lab, door closed and phone pressed to her ear. Ziva had stormed through, not even saying hello as she fled into the windowed room and slammed the door. They had not seen one another since the wedding and now she had to wait even longer to talk. Two weeks was a long time in Abby time, and they had so much to discuss – McGee's new haircut, the new Probie in Agent Karson's team, Ducky's birthday that's coming up…

Ziva waited tensely, trying to ignore the persistent tears that constantly kept welling in her eyes as the phone continued to ring on the other end.

 _"Shalom."_

"Abba."

 _"Ziva. How are you?"_

"I am well. Tony and I are both well. We have just come back from our honeymoon." There was silence on the other end of the line. "You did not come to the wedding."

 _"You did not invite me."_ Eli sounded convincing.

She scoffed. "Abba, has the postal service in Israel really gotten that bad?"

 _"I do not know what you mean."_

"I sent invites." Her accent grew thick with emotion. "There were empty seats. The only people from Israel who came were Aunt Nettie and Shmeil. I sent invites to so many people and nobody came."

There was a pause. _"I am sorry, Ziva. I was busy, something came up."_

She shook her head, laughing bitterly. "It always does, yes? Abba, do you remember that dance recital, when I was nine?"

 _"Which one?"_

"The one in Tel Aviv."

 _"Of course I do. You wore purple."_

"No. No, I did not. I have never danced in purple. I danced there specifically so you could come and watch, and you did not. Ari came. Did you know that he and Tali watched every single one of my performances?"

 _"I never saw him at any of them."_

"You never came to any of them." She said quietly, looking down and brushing tears away. "You could have at least called."

 _"What good would it have done, Ziva? If I had called then you would have wanted me to be there, and I could not. I had an important meeting…"_ She did not listen to any more of what her father had to say, placing the phone back in its cradle and leaning her elbows on the desk, sitting her chin on her hands.

There was a knock at the door and she looked up, smiling softly at Tony's worried expression. He started pulling faces through the glass, quickly making her laugh through her tears. He walked through, crouching down before her. "You okay?"

"Yes." She nodded, cupping his cheek in her hand, her fingertips playing with his hair. "Sorry I shouted."

"No problem. I shouldn't have been looking, whether consciously or not." He shrugged.

Ziva shook her head. "No, Tony. You are…you. You will always have wandering elevator eyes. It is what makes you, you. So long as you keep it to just looking, I can have no problem with it."

"Well, you can. You're my wife." He pressed a kiss to her cheek. "I love you."

"I know."

He hesitated. "So, er…what was the, er, phone-call about?"

"Nothing. Just an idiot in another country." He raised his eyebrows. "My father."

"Oh. You have every right to be mad and angry and pissed off then." He grinned and she shook her head, hitting him lightly on the shoulder. "Anything important?"

"Not anymore." The look in her eyes told him that she was telling the truth, although omitting a lot of the facts.

"Okay." His face broke into a large grin. "I have something for you, and I think, hope, you are going to love it. It's very exciting."

"You are pregnant, yes?" She joked and he nodded.

"That's, that's just it. McGee is gonna be so proud."

"McGee? So you have not _just_ been looking? It would have been nice to know this small bit of information _before_ we got married, but I guess the only think I can do now is accept it, because our children will need a father, although if I do not deem you to be a fit father I am sure that Gibbs will be there for me." She smirked as his face fell, then took on a rather disgusted expression.

" _Gibbs_?!"

"Well, I am sure he would be…experienced. Of course, he does have his thing with redheads, so maybe not. Hmm, if I am wanting experience, I am certain Ducky would be willing to replace you." Tony shuddered, scrunching his face up.

"Thank you, for that beautiful image. If you do not mind I would like to take you home so I can purge myself of images of you with my boss and the medical examiner, both of whom are old enough to be your father."

"But we have only just gotten here, Tony."

"Well, you should not have filled my head with such images. I'll have nightmares for months." He cringed again and she laughed.

"What is this surprise, Tony?"

"Oh, well, I'm not so certain that you deserve it now…"

"Tony!" She whined, laughing as he stood up and made his way to the door. "Please?"

"Well, since you said please." He sighed, walking back over to her and kneeling down on one knee. He brought her ID cards and badge out of his pocket and held them up to her. "Ziva David-DiNozzo, will you do me the great honour of being my partner as a full NCIS agent?"

"I am an agent? A full agent?"

"Very Special Agent Ziva David." Tony nodded as he handed them over and she admired them. "The 'Very' at the front of your name is an honour by the way, and a greatly coveted title."

"And I will use it with pride, Very Special Agent DiNozzo."

* * *

Jenny smiled at her four top agents all at their desks working hard as she walked out of the elevator.

Wait.

Four?

She had started Ziva's maternity leave the previous morning after prolonging it for as long as possible. Much to the pregnant woman's disgust.

So what was she doing sat in her chair with her feet crossed on her desk, a Tupperware tub on her bump and 'What to expect when you're expecting' in her hands? "Agent David. I thought you were supposed to be home." It was a statement. No arguments.

"Your idea, not mine." She continued reading, not even bothering to look away as she blindly reached for the tub and removed a stick of celery.

"You are on maternity leave, Agent David. That means you go home. You don't come in and work."

"Not working, just reading. My computer is off." She looked up this time and smiled innocently. "Celery?" She offered the pot over and smiled.

"No, thank you." Her manners were not forgotten. "Why are you here, Ziva?"

"I was bored." Her shrug told Jenny everything she needed to know. Ziva David-DiNozzo was not going to sit around alone all day doing nothing. She was going to sit in her desk chair and make every effort not to work and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

"I cannot sanction you to attend any crime-scenes, or do anything official, but I am certain that if everyone on this team agrees that it is what is best for all parties, then I am sure you can…" She searched for the right word. "Assist in any way that puts neither you, your unborn children or anyone else in this agency or the general public in any harm." Tony, Ziva and Tim broke into huge grins at her words.

"That was the plan." Gibbs shrugged and she felt as she walked up to her office that she had just been played by her best team.

"Ziva, I still don't understand how you can eat just plain celery on it's own." McGee asked from his desk.

"Same way Gibbs drinks his coffee, McGee." She went back to reading. "I crave it."

"Not why I drink my coffee." The boss didn't lift his eyes from the report he was reading, yet still feeling the three sets of eyes that were staring at him.

"So why do you?" Tony asked, looking up from the game of Pacman he was loosing.

"Habit." He shrugged, taking a swig and placing the cup back down.

"So you just buy the coffee because you always have." McGee frowned.

"And you just drink the coffee because you always have." Ziva looked rather confused.

"I'm not buying it." Tony leant back in his chair. "I mean, if that were it then you'd not care if we spilt it. Anyway, if it is just a habit then you should really try to quit, 'cause that stuff's real bad for you."

"That so, DiNozzo?" Gibbs stood up and walked over to him. "Well then, I suggest that you finish that report you were writing before I act upon another bad habit."

"And what would that be?"

"Hitting you!" He headed off in the direction of the rear elevators, undoubtedly towards Abby's lab to escape from them. "And stop playing that game, DiNozzo!"

"I really think he needs less of that stuff."

"What'd he drink when he was in Mexico?" McGee frowned.

"Coffee." Tony and Ziva both replied simultaneously.

"No, when I tried tracing him when he left, I couldn't find any abnormally high coffee sales anywhere in Mexico. None. I noticed sales dropping in DC, but nowhere were sales increasing. I even think it affected the global market."

"Maybe he grew his own." Tony shrugged.

"No, he probably would have cut the tree down to turn into wood for a boat."

"Maybe he abstained from coffee." Ziva suggested before they all burst into laughter. "Tony, what are you doing?"

"Calling Mike Franks." He dialled the number into his landline. "I really wanna know now."

"Why'd we never ask before?" McGee looked at Ziva.

"Because we never knew that he did not, we assumed that he just drank coffee."

"Hi, uh, I'm calling for Mike, tell him Tony DiNozzo wants to talk..." There was a pause whilst the phone at the cantina was passed over and Tony put the phone on speaker so the others could hear. "Mike, how are you?!"

"DiNozzo, what d'you want?"

"Who says I want something?"

"You're calling the cantina. Means something's wrong with Gibbs. What is it?"

"Nothing, can't we just, y'know, catch up?"

"Catch up?" Mike sounded sceptical.

"Yeah."

"Mike, we have a question."

"Lady Ziva! How's married life faring with DiNozzo?"

"It is not so bad. He does his best." She grinned as Tony stuck his tongue out at her. "Mike, we were wondering… when Gibbs was in Mexico with you, what did he drink?"

"Beer. What else?"

"So he didn't drink any coffee at all?"

"Coffee? There's no coffee at my place. Coffee's for people who work."

"Yeah, but Gibbs drinks about as much coffee as Abby drinks Caf-Pow! It's unnatural to see him without a cup of coffee in his hand." Tony frowned. "Wasn't he, y'know, irritable and stuff?"

"He's Gibbs. I gave him some wood and he built things." There were three 'Oh's. "Don't you have something better to be doing than bothering me when I'm trying to relax?"

"Well, actually, uh, no." Tony admitted freely, cringing when he felt the presence of his boss standing behind his partitioning wall. "Although, actually, I think there are some cold cases that would really love to be reviewed. Thanks for that, Mike. Good to hear from you." He hung up and turned around, not at all shocked that McGee and Ziva had both already hurried back to the safety of their own desks. "Hi, Boss. I think I'll…just…get on with some work."

"It would make a change."

"Hey, I object to that. I do loads of work." There were two snorts of laughter and he sent glares to both his wife and his best friend.

"Yes, DiNozzo. I've seen the really impressive work you've done on building the tallest house of cards and the longest paper aeroplane flight and even seeing how many tubes of superglue it takes to completely cover McGee's desk. You really are the best procrastinator I know."

"Why thank you, Boss, that's real swe... and not a complement. I'll get on with some actual work now." He waited patiently for the head-slap he knew was coming, and was not disappointed as he thanked Gibbs.


	49. Chapter XLIX

**This is a fluffy-ish chapter, I guess.**

XLIX. The Way To A Man's Heart Is Through His Stomach.

"What is it today, DiNozzo?" Gibbs actually smiled as he looked up from the report he was reading to see his senior field agent come in carrying three cake tins in one hand and his rucksack in the other.

"Well, yesterday my beautiful wife cooked chocolate brownies, a red velvet cake and semolina biscuits." Tony placed the tins down on his desk.

"How much food is that over the past week?" McGee walked over, immediately taking a slice of brownie when Tony lifted the lid.

"Four cakes, six batches of cookies and five tray-bakes. The neighbours love her, she keeps giving them food." He chuckled. "And she's somehow in under a week managed to make everyone in the building who didn't like me actually like me. She's making strawberry shortcake today, as well as tiffin and lemon drizzle cake."

"Well, bring in some of the tiffin, DiNozzo." Gibbs took one of the semolina cookies. "Oh, and take some of the red velvet cake up to the director and Cynthia."

"On it, Boss." Tony nodded, picking up the last tin and jogging up the stairs to the director's office.

"Do you think Ziva's bored, Boss?"

"What do you think, McGee? I reckon she's going out of her mind." Gibbs said around the biscuit.

* * *

"Abs…?"

"Yes, Timmy?" Abby looked over to her best friend, who sat glumly next to her in her lab at the main console desk. "What's wrong?"

"Dunno." He sighed, his shoulders slumping. "I was just wondering… everything's changing…"

"And you're worried that everything's going to be different now?" Abby leaned over and engulfed him in a hug. "Aw, McGee… of course it won't."

"Abs, Tony and Ziva are married, Ziva's having the twins… we're not just a group of friends anymore, we're divided."

Abby snorted. "No we're not. We're family, McGee. We're no more divided than we already were."

"But…what happens when the twins are born? I mean, what if Ziva and Tony don't want to work any more? What if they want to get a safer job? I mean, if I was a parent, I wouldn't want this job."

"You wouldn't?"

"Remember that statistic you came up with, the probability of us coming back every time we go into the field? Would you do that if you had a child relying on you?"

She paused and looked down, considering his point. "I know. But they love their work, and they love us, and can you really picture Tony just letting some other agent, a lesser agent even, sit at his desk? No, I didn't think so. And Ziva? She'd just get bored of sitting at home. She likes the action."

"But they'll love their children more." Tim's face fell, lifeless as he exhaled. "What if they get other, safer jobs, and we stop seeing one another and they get new colleagues and friends, forget us?"

"That would never happen, and you know it Timothy. You should be ashamed for thinking such a thing." Her abrupt movement as she stood up knocked her stool over. "They wouldn't. We're family, McGee. Family don't forget one another."

"But, what if…?"

"No. No what if's. McGee. It won't happen." She righted her chair and walked over to her desk, jamming the keys on her keyboard.

He would have suggested that she was scared too, were he not petrified that she would carry out her threat of death with no forensic evidence. "Abs, I didn't mean…"

"Yes you did, McGee." She sighed and looked up at him, her expression pitiful. "If you're that worried, Tim, go talk to them. But I don't believe it will happen and I don't want to think about it happening." She did not sound convincing, more like it would not happen if she did not think about it, not the way the world usually worked.

* * *

The sound of energetic Spanish music drifted down the hall as Tony walked into the house, along with the warm, zesty smell of lemon drizzle cake. He smiled, following his nose like a bloodhound as he dumped his bag by the door and walked through to the kitchen. His grin widened when he saw his wife, hair in a messy bun, dancing to the loud music, her back turned to him so she faced the counter. The music covered his quiet chuckles as he lounged against the doorframe, admiring his wife's body. She crouched down by the oven, removing one tin and replacing it with another.

"Hey."

She whipped around, her eyes wide, before relaxing. "Maybe I should not have taught you to sneak up so well."

"Well, it's unfair you having all the cool ninja tricks." He shrugged, walking over to her and smiling as she melted into his arms.

"Yes, but you have all the movie quotes. I could never keep up with you on those."

"Ah, but I could never bake so well." He dipped his finger into the mixing bowl and licked the mixture off. "Mmm." There was a knock on the door and both agents frowned. "Are we expecting anyone?"

"Not unless you have invited anyone over."

Tony shook his head and they both made their way to the door, Tony fingering the weapon at his hip as Ziva reached for one of her knives. "Hey, we know you're there!"

The door flew open. "Abs, what…?" They stared at their colleagues. Gibbs rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"We brought furniture for the twin's room!" Abby grinned, pointing to Gibbs' truck.

"Why?"

"It's a wedding present. And a baby-shower gift, without the baby-shower." McGee smiled. Gibbs had told McGee about the furniture at the same time he told Jenny, whilst Tony and Ziva were away.

"You should not have. Really." Ziva let them in.

"It's the least we could do. Made two cots, a rocking chair, a changing table and two highchairs. Ducky also brought two bassinets with stands and two car seats." Gibbs said. "You'll need them all."

"And how d'you know we didn't already buy all this stuff?" Tony asked sceptically.

"Because you would probably have come in complaining about how much you've had to spend before they are even born." Jenny laughed.

Abby started jumping around. "I helped paint everything, and it all matches how we painted the nursery when Ziva was in hospital. It's gonna look so cool." She grinned. "Can we start setting it all up? Please Ziva? Please?"

"I do not see why not." She shrugged, covering her ears as Abby squealed and dragged McGee out of the room and down the steps to the street. "Gibbs, you did not have to do this."

"Yeah, yeah I did." He murmured before walking out with the director to help Abby and McGee bring the furniture in.

"Let us go upstairs and make sure there is room for everything, My Dear." Ducky took Ziva's arm. "Tony, I advise that you help the others carry. The more people, the fewer trips that will be needed."

"I'm being bossed around in my own home, and not even by my wife…Ow!" Tony screeched as something hit the back of his head, and he spun around to stare at the two innocent faces behind him. Both Ziva and Ducky smiled at him before walking upstairs.

* * *

Ziva ran her hand along the edge of one of the white painted cots, her fingers feeling the grain of the wood, memorising it, as her other hand rubbed circles on her stomach. "That's everyone gone." Tony said, coming up behind her and pressing a kiss to the back of her head, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair as he did so.

"I love our family, Tony."

"Yeah, I do too." He smiled, his hand meeting hers, fingers tangling, as she leaned back into him, their bodies pressed together, her back against his chest. "It's strange, don't you think, that in a few months we'll be able to hold our babies?"

"I do not think it is strange. I just want to hold them now."

"Ziva David-DiNozzo, are you being impatient?"

"No. Just a mother." She shook her head. "I never thought I would ever say that. I am going to be a mother." Her voice was distant, dreamlike. "Even when I…miscarried, I never considered that I would be a mother, not really."

"I always knew I'd be a father at one point, or at least hoped. I never thought I would be so lucky as to have you as my beautiful wife." They stood in silence in the nursery, the fading light of evening painting the pale room in golden oranges and tangerine pinks. "What is Hebrew for Mum, Ziva?" She tilted her face up to him, frowning. "What did you call your Mum, when you were little?"

"Ima. I called her Ima."

"I like that. It's short and sweet. Ima." He smiled, turning her in his arms and pressing a quick, chaste kiss to her lips.

"I am going to be an Ima."

 **Chapter 50 next, and it is still what I said I wanted it to be in the last chapter. Of course, you will have to wait to find out what that is. Sorry.**

 **So, we have almost made it through 50 chapters, do we think we can survive through another 50, try to reach 100? It really would appease my nice-number thing. I used to be quite partial to the number 72. If not then I am sure that 75 or 80 would do, but really, if we get that far, we might as well go the whole way. I already have a fair amount of chapters typed or written up, so I will upload them what ever happens. And after the next chapter's ending I can guarantee that you will be wanting me to continue. I hope. Either that or you will all be crying out** **a** **that you hate my guts, which I do sometimes too, so you will not be the only one.**


	50. Chapter L

**Another pre-written chapter, and uploaded so quickly. Make sure you have read the others first.**

 **Chapter 50! Yay...**

 **Or not...**

 **This is just a short chapter. Like…666 words. Oh dear, that does not bode well. It does explain some things, though. Hmm...**

L. We Accept The Love We Think We Deserve.

"You are beautiful so stop saying you're not."

"I am not."

"Fine then, you're not."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said you were not beautiful. I was agreeing with you." Tony sighed. "Look, Ziva, you are my beautiful wife. I love you. I would even if you weren't beautiful, but you are." The hormones were confusing him.

"I love you too, Tony." She slid her hand into his as they walked back towards the Navy Yard from where they had gone for lunch. They continued on in silence for about five minutes before Ziva tilted her head. She looked back forward. "We are being followed."

"Blue jacket, camouflage trousers on the opposite side of the street? Yeah, I've seen him." He nodded and muttered, pulling her into the nearest store. "Maybe we're just going in the same direction." He whispered as they browsed the shelf of greetings cards.

"He is still out there." Ziva angled her head so she could see the man standing across the street from them through the glass window without making it obvious that she was watching.

"Call Gibbs. Let him know that we're being tailed. I wanna get you back to the Navy Yard before anything goes wrong." Tony said hurriedly, discreetly checking out of the window. "Christ. This is not what maternity leave is meant for. Maternity leave means you stay out of danger."

"It is why you have been wrapping me in wool for all this time."

"Cotton wool."

"Right now, Tony, my incorrect idioms are not our highest concern." She pulled her phone out and dialled. "Gibbs. We have a slight problem."

 _"What's wrong, Ziva?"_

"There is somebody following us. He has been with us since we left the café."

 _"Where are you now?"_

"A book shop. We are about three minutes from the Navy Yard."

 _"I'm on my way. Either of you recognise him?"_

"There is something, but I think it might just be paranoia. Tony, do you recognise him?"

"No." He shook his head, looking out again. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

"Gibbs, I do not like just sitting here. I am getting anty and I am in no doubt that our mystery man is, too."

 _"Just stay there."_

"Gibbs, I really, really am not happy just sitting here. We are like sitting geese. We are becoming bigger targets by the minute."

 _"Okay. Take the fastest route. I'll meet you and get you back."_ Gibbs sounded more worried than usual.

"Thank you. We will see you in a minute."

"The term's antsy, by the way. And sitting ducks, not geese. Sorry, not the right time. We're meeting halfway?" Tony asked, fingering his SIG.

"Yes. What is our plan of action?" She reached for her weapon too.

"Don't let him know we're onto him." He looked at her. "I love you." He pressed his lips to hers. "And I love you two, too." Two more kisses to her bump, one either side. "We'll get out of this. We always do." Ziva nodded. Neither said it, but the same thought ran through both of their heads. _One day we won't be so lucky._

"I love you, Tony."

"I know you do, Sweetcheeks. Gibbs will save us."

"I know." She nodded, but didn't sound confident. She took his hand and they walked out of the shop, keeping up a reasonable pace.

"Y'know, you walk fast for a pregnant woman." Tony chuckled, trying to lighten the mood and failing.

"I have a reason to be walking fast, Tony." She froze as the man crossed the road. They quickened and so did he, herding them into an empty plot of land, covered in wildflowers. "This is not good."

"Really, really not good. Where's Gibbs?" They realised they had nowhere left to run and Ziva's grip on Tony's hand tightened and they turned to face the man following them. Tony held his ID and gun up. "NCIS, put your weapon down."

And then it happened.

Three shots rang out.

 **Whoopsidaisies. Well, 50 is such a nice number…I could just leave it here…**


	51. Chapter LI

**Sorry. So, so sorry. Last chapter was…well, you know.**

 **I am in a fairly bad mood today.**

 **So, this was actually the first chapter I wrote for this whole story, then I decided that it really needed somewhere to actually start from, kind of like Star Wars.**

 **I would just like everyone to remember, this is fiction.**

 **Here is the definition of fiction if anyone has forgotten:**

 ** _1._** ** _literature in the form of prose, especially novels, that describes imaginary events and people._**

 ** _2._** ** _something that is invented or untrue._**

 **With that in mind, I will blatantly ignore any comments of "That would not happen in reality!", because I simply do not care.**

 **Sorry. Reading back on that, it sounds snippy. Was it snippy? It was not meant to be. Or maybe it was. I do not really know.**

LI. No One Can Confidently Say That He Will Still Be Living Tomorrow.

"Tony!" Ziva ran over, putting pressure on his wound. The bullet had hit just bellow his left clavicle. "You are going to be fine." She looked him in the eye, her whole body shaking with tears. The red of his blood matched the colour of the poppies that crowded around them, waving in the gentle breeze, oblivious to the pain and suffering that was crushing their hardy stems. Her spare hand found his and moved it, placing it on her stomach. "In there are our babies, and you cannot leave them, do you hear me?" She pressed harder on his wound. "I cannot raise them alone."

"I love…you…" He choked, barely managing the last word. She bit her lip as his grip on her hand weakened and his eyes began to lose focus.

"Tony! Stay with me!" She cried harder, her salty tears mingling with his metallic blood. Hands pulled her gently away from her husband as paramedics swarmed around him like wasps. Gibbs wrapped his arms around her, restraining her as she fought against him.

"Ziva, calm." He whispered in her ear, allowing her to collapse into his arms, cradling her as her whole body rocked with sobs. "He's gonna pull through." She crumbled, clinging onto her boss for dear life.

"How can you know that?" Her voice cracked as she looked up at him, pleading.

"Because I haven't given him permission to leave." Gibbs shrugged.

"Do you think this is a joke?" She stepped back. Her breathing was ragged and her whole body was trembling, radiating waves of anger.

"No, Ziva." He looked at her. "No. I think of him as a son. You're like a daughter to me. I gave you away at your wedding." He shook his head. "You and Tony are my two best agents. I'm not going to lose him and he is not going to leave you." The ambulance sirens blared and it pulled away. Ziva felt empty, desolate. One of the twins kicked and her hand moved absently to her side. She looked down at her blood stained palms and clothes. "Come on." Gibbs walked her to his car, pulling her seatbelt across her and clipping it in, sighing when she didn't respond. He drove off, fast, following the path of the ambulance. He stopped the car outside the hospital, turning to her. "Officer David! Snap out of it!" He yelled and her head whipped round. "You say you will need Tony for the babies, but right now he needs you." He said. "Come on." She nodded, climbing out of the car and following him to the front desk numbly. "Your bullets hit. Both of them. The shooter is dead. Focus on Tony." They waited, impatiently, in the queue before Gibbs looked down at her and saw her eyes clouding over again. He wrapped his arm around Ziva's shoulders and pushed forwards, creating a lot of angry people. The man at the front of the line turned around and looked at the large group of people who were yelling at Gibbs and Ziva, and then back to the two people who had caused the outrage, about to complain at them and then noticing Ziva's appearance.

"Hey, the woman's pregnant and covered in blood! I can guarantee that whatever it is that you're in here for, she needs their attention more than you do!" He shouted and the mob settled slightly, the angry yells fading to quieter angry mumbles and murmurs.

"Thanks." Gibbs nodded, frowning at the man who had stuck up for them.

"You're welcome. My daughter, she didn't get the help she needed because there was a queue of angry people and she…she didn't get the help she needed. Anything to help another family." The stranger smiled sadly as he revealed the small amount of information about his life to explain why he was helping them. Gibbs flashed a small smile and turned back to the front desk, his steely exterior replaced.

"Tony DiNozzo." He snapped, flashing his badge.

The woman behind the desk tapped a few keys on the computer in front of her and then looked back up. "He's just gone into surgery." The nurse stood up and looked at Ziva, her bump, the bloody clothes. "Can I get you a set of scrubs?" She asked.

"I would appreciate that." She nodded, her accent heavy.

"How far along are you?"

"Uh, almost eight months." Ziva swallowed as they followed.

"And you're still working?" The nurse handed a pair of green scrubs over.

"No. We were getting lunch." Ziva said flatly.

"I should have told you to stay where you were. We wouldn't be here now."

"Or he could have shot at us anyway. And then there would have been innocent civilians caught in the cross fire too." She looked up at him and frowned. "We did our jobs. That is what we are trained to do."

"And you're about to have kids!" He yelled at her. "You're on maternity leave! You're supposed to be safe. Neither of you should be anywhere near the crossfire of any guns!"

"You're agent DiNozzo's wife?" The nurse asked sympathetically.

"Yes." She lay her hand on the spot that one of the twins kept kicking at, trying to quell the unborn child's restlessness.

"I'm sorry." The woman nodded. "You can change through there." She pointed to an empty exam room. "Then I can take you to a waiting room."

* * *

Gibbs watched Ziva as she slept. She had curled up on a series of three vinyl chairs across the waiting room from him. Her sleep was deep, but traumatic, he could tell. Her face would contract and she would whimper slightly. She had twisted so the scrubs were stretched taut across her swollen abdomen. Abby, McGee and Ducky had been in and out of the waiting room every few hours, checking for news before going back and processing any evidence from the scene or following any of the meagre leads they could find. Tony's doctor, Dr Thompson, walked through and looked at Ziva pitifully, exhaling before turning to Gibbs. "Makes me want to go home and hug my wife and kids."

"They're as close to my kids as possible. I gave her away at their wedding." Gibbs shook his head and stood up. "He'll be ok?"

"Your agent DiNozzo's a strong man, he's a fighter."

"He's got something to fight for." The agent shrugged.

"I didn't expect him to get this far. He isn't out of the woods, but he's through the worst of it, providing he recovers and recuperates well."

"Thank you, doctor." Gibbs shook his hand.

"He should wake up in a day or two, but you can see him if you wish."

"I'll wait till she wakes up." He pointed to the pregnant woman. "She'll want to see him first."

"You're a good man, Agent Gibbs." He nodded and walked away. Gibbs sat back down, jumping back up again immediately as Ziva began to cry out in anguish, ignoring his coffee cup as it tumbled to the floor, spilling the brown liquid across the linoleum.

"Hey, hey." He wrapped his arms around her to stop her from thrashing about. "Hush."

"Gibbs." She gasped, looking up at her boss. "It was not just a dream, was it?" She looked down at the scrubs she was wearing, the blood that still stained her hands.

"No." He shook his head sadly. "He's out of surgery. Asleep."

"I can see him?" Her eyes welled with tears.

"Yeah." He smiled slightly. "Go see him." She eased herself up from the seats. He pointed to a room down the corridor and she nodded, walking in that direction. She sighed shakily at her husband lying in the hospital bed, tears dribbling down her cheeks. She pushed through the glass door and walked over to him, picking up his limp hand.

"Oh Tony…" She cried, sitting in the chair next to his bed, running her hand through his hair. "Gibbs assures me that you are going to be fine, and I hope he is right, because I do not know how to go on without you." She swallowed, wiping her tears away. "Please be alright."

* * *

"DiNozzo, you're a pain in the ass, you know that?" Gibbs sighed as he dragged a second chair to the side of Tony's hospital bed. Ziva had slept in the other chair overnight, not relinquishing her grasp on his hand, even in her slumber. "But you're my pain in the ass." He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "And I don't give you permission to die." He watched Ziva sleep before standing up and tugging the curtains closed slightly to stop the sun that was beginning to light the room up from waking her. There was a quiet knock on the glass door and a nurse walked through, carrying a tray.

"Hi, I thought you might want some food and coffee." She handed him a disposable cup and an apple, placing a banana beside Ziva.

"Thank you." He nodded, placing the cup down.

"It's sad." The nurse looked at Ziva and then at Tony. "Makes you realise how unpredictable life is."

"She needs a change of clothes and a shower." He pointed to the sleeping woman.

"I'll see what I can do." The nurse smiled kindly and he nodded.

"Thank you."

* * *

"Hey." Gibbs bowed his head slightly as Ziva stirred awake.

"Hello." She murmured quietly.

"Clean set of scrubs." Gibbs held them up. "They have somewhere you can take a shower."

"I am not leaving him, Gibbs." She shook her head.

"It'll make you feel better."

"I am not the one who needs to feel better." She said quietly, watching her husband's motionless face.

"Ziva, I'll be here."

"What if he wakes up whilst I am having a shower?"

"Then I'll tell him that you're having a shower and you'll be back soon." Gibbs shrugged. "Go. He'll understand." He handed the green cotton scrubs to her. She clasped them in her hands and folded them on her lap, stroking the soft material.

"I cannot leave him. I cannot, Gibbs. I cannot." Drops of moisture began to land on the mint green fabric, creating dark, damp circles.

"It's alright." He said, walking over to her and helping her to stand up. He wrapped his arms around her and held her head to his chest. "I shouldn't have pushed you. You don't have to leave him if you don't want to."

"I want him back, Gibbs." She whispered through her tears, sniffing slightly as she watched her husband's weak breathing from over Gibbs shoulder.

"He's not gone, Ziva." Gibbs shook his head, keeping her arms wrapped around her shoulders. "He'll be okay. You'll be okay. But, if you're not gonna have a shower, you're gonna need to eat something." He handed her the banana.

"Gibbs, I…"

"It's a banana. Good for you." He smiled and walked back to his seat. "Full of potassium and…stuff."

"Mmm, stuff. Sounds delicious." She said sarcastically.

"You like bananas." He frowned.

"I liked them before you tried to tell me what they contain." She peeled the yellow fruit, struggling slightly but too stubborn to let Gibbs help.

"Trying to make them sound good." He shrugged.

"Well, it was unnecessary." She sat back down too, her eyes fixed back on Tony's face.

* * *

Abby walked into the hospital room and looked at her friends. Ziva was curled awkwardly – asleep – in the chair beside the hospital bed, her hand still entwined in Tony's. Tony himself was lying, connected to an IV drip replacing his blood. He looked so pale, his face lifeless and missing something...his Tony-ness. She walked over to the other side of the bed, jumping when he moaned slightly. "Tony?" She watched as he blinked slowly and groaned.

"Abs?" He looked up at her, his voice hoarse. "What happened?" He asked quietly.

"You were shot." She shook her head, her voice spiking.

"Ziva? Where's Ziva?" He grew panicked, the machines monitoring him beginning to beep erratically.

"Right next to you." Abby smiled and pointed. He twisted his head to the side, groaning in pain, to look at his wife. He looked back, his face full of fear.

"Why's she in scrubs? Is she all right? The babies are fine?" His heart rate increased, the panic setting in fully.

"She's fine, they're all fine. Her clothes were covered in blood so they gave her scrubs to change into." She tried to calm him down.

"How bad was it?" He reached up with the hand opposite his wound, the one not restrained by a sling, and flinched, pain splintering across his shoulder.

"Well, it wasn't good." The Goth said sarcastically. "Sorry." She said quietly.

"It's fine." He looked at her. "Gibbs?"

"Sat in the waiting room. Has been since you arrived here." She flashed a grin as Ziva stirred. "I'll go find your doctor."

"You are awake." She leaned forwards, stroking his forehead.

"Apparently so." He smiled.

"I love you so much."

"I love you just as much. If not more." He smiled as she kissed his cheek. He frowned as her face contorted in pain. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." She shook her head and stood up.

"Don't lie to an injured man, Ziva."

"I said I am fine. How is your shoulder?"

"I have to say the morphine really is taking a toll, because I thought you just flinched again."

"You are right, maybe the morphine is taking a toll." She frowned at him. They sat in a silent stalemate, neither willing to concede and break it, as they stared, their eyes locked.

Tony caved first. "Tell me what's wrong, Ziva." He tried to sit up as she hissed in pain, her hand dropping to her stomach. "Ok, was that a contraction?" He said through gritted teeth.

"More than likely." She swallowed.

"How long have they been going on for?"

"Well…I guess they started just before I fell asleep, but I just though they were Braxton Hicks contractions." She shrugged. "And then my waters broke." Panic flickered momentarily across her face. "I changed my scrubs. The contractions were not as bad as they are now."

"And you slept through them?" Tony shook his head slowly.

"I was tired Tony." Ziva snapped and he raised his free hand in defence as high as he could, wincing in pain.

"You should have told someone, Ziva." He scolded.

"No. I am not doing this without you, Tony."

"Is this some form of perverse blackmail? Because I don't like it." Tears welled up, threatening to fall, as she stared at him. He sighed and shook his head. "Oh, Ziva, you know I didn't mean it. I want to meet our babies just as much as you do. Sweetcheeks, I am going to be right hear next to you, the whole time."

"I know." Her voice was shaky, barely audible as her eyes flickered shut and her grip on the arms of the chair tightened. Although she appeared to control herself this time, Tony could see she was struggling. He knew it was early. Too early. She was only 34 weeks.

"Okay, they're really close together." He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and tried to stand up next to his wife.

"Tony, what are you doing out of bed?" The Dr Thompson rushed in and put a gentle palm on the man's chest, trying to coax him back into bed.

"My wife has gone into labour." He pointed to her. "I'm gonna take her to the maternity ward."

"No, you're not. You're going to stay in bed and recover. Agent Gibbs is going to take you to the maternity ward." He said to Ziva.

"Why can I not have the babies here?"

"Because we're not fully equipped here. Come on." He said, walking her out of the room.

"I am not leaving him." She dug her heels in – metaphorically and physically. "I will not go."

"I don't think you have a choice." The doctor chuckled lightly and stopped in the hall as she glared at him. "Look. You might want to wait for Tony, but those babies don't. Agent Gibbs is going to take you to the maternity ward."

"Hey, Ziva, how's he doing?" McGee asked as he and Abby walked down the corridor. He held a stack of DVDs in his hand.

"I do not know." She gasped and doubled over slightly. "I have withstood interrogation, and never have I been in so much pain." She hissed at the doctor.

"It's fine." He nodded soberly. "You'll be just fine."

"Do you want me to inflict this pain on you?!" She yelled and Abby and McGee exchanged glances before hurrying over.

"Okay, what's happening?" Abby asked, her voice growing higher in pitch.

"Your friend has gone into labour. One of you might want to take her to Agent Gibbs and the other will have to restrain Tony. He will probably be trying to make his way through that door any second." He smiled. Abby and McGee stood frozen for a moment before snapping into action immediately.

Rock, paper, scissors.

When Abby's rock smashed McGee's scissors, she looked between expectant mother and expectant father, deliberating over which was the safer job and which McGee would enjoy least. McGee would definitely enjoy witnessing a birth less than he would enjoy being Tony's captor. And being Tony's guard was safer – he only had one arm, after all.

She held her hands out and Tim sighed. He handed the DVDs to his dark friend and took Ziva's arm, leading her towards the waiting room that she had spent the first night sleeping in as Abby walked in the opposite direction towards Tony's private room.

"Ziva? What's wrong?" Gibbs leapt up as McGee walked through with Ziva.

"Contractions." McGee said.

"Now?" Gibbs questioned, his eyes wide.

"Er, yeah." Tim clenched his eyes tight as Ziva almost broke all the bones in his hand.

"Right, come on." Gibbs took her other hand. "When it hurts, squeeze my hand, not McGee's. I can't afford to have any more agents in here." He smiled at her and the corners of her mouth twitched up slightly, the smile not reaching her eyes and the fear not fading from her face. "You do pick your moments, don't you?" He muttered sarcastically under his breath as he hit the button for the elevator.

"Gibbs, I did not pick this moment." She glared at him.

"Figure of speech." McGee nodded. "Too complicated to explain now." The elevator door slid shut as a brief flicker of pain passed through Gibbs' eyes and he wondered for a second if he should have left McGee to suffer Ziva's grip, character building or the such like.

* * *

"Tony, you have to stay here." Abby said, biting her lip. "You can watch a movie." She smiled weakly.

"Abby, Ziva's gone into labour. I should be with her." He stood up again, gritting his teeth at the pain splintering down his shoulder. He yanked the machines he was hooked up to out and sighed when she stood in his way, the expulsion of air regretfully painful. "Abby, let me past." He leaned on the IV stand he was still connected to.

"I can't." She shook her head. "You're not allowed to leave."

"Abby, you want to be there when the twins are born too, don't you?" He grinned. She sighed, relenting.

"Fine, but your doctor is gonna be back any second." She looked out of the door. "Can you walk?"

"I was shot in the shoulder, Abby. Not my leg." He shook his head, trying not to let her see the pain that would make her lock him in his room for good. "Let's go." He muttered impatiently.

"Coast is clear." She flicked her eyes either way before leading him down the hall, keeping her pace as quick as possible without causing Tony too much pain. "I think they've taken her to the maternity ward."

"Great, Abs, which floor?" He asked as he leant against the inside wall of the elevator.

"I…don't know." She looked at him, her shoulders sagging. "Hold on, I'll ask."

"Abs, no-one can know I've left my room, how are you going to ask?"

"Good point. Um, we can go down to the main reception, ask there and then go and find her?" She smiled, her idea suiting the pair of them. Tony hit the button for the ground floor and groaned as the metal box jolted to life and they descended slowly.

"Go and ask, I'll stay by the elevator." He said as the doors slid open and he eased himself out. She nodded and ran over to the front desk.

"Hi. I'm looking for the maternity ward." She smiled at the nurse.

"I'm sorry, are you visiting someone?" The nurse smiled sweetly back.

"Uh, yeah. Ziva David-DiNozzo." Abby flicked her eyes over to where Tony had moved to sit on one of the vinyl chairs next to a pot-plant, the leaves of which he kept batting away with a hand.

"Are you a relative?"

"Well, she's one of my closest friends and we work together every day and we're closer to family than real family and our boss would say that blood doesn't make a family, but relationships do and I was one of her bridesmaids at her wedding and my boss is with her now and so is one of my other best friends. Please?" She gushed, her pigtails bobbing up and down. The nurse sighed and shook her head.

"Third floor, there are signs."

"Thank you. So much." Abby looked her in the eye before running back over to Tony and relaying the news. "Third floor."

"Let's go, then." His face pinched and he ground his teeth together as he stood up. They returned back into the elevator and Abby hit the button, smiling. They waited the short journey upstairs in silence, Abby darting out as soon as the door opened and Tony followed at a slower speed. "Abs, could you just slow down slightly." He said quietly as he paused to catch his breath. "It's just that, I've been shot, and that kinda takes the breath out of you."

"Oh, yeah." She studied his face carefully. "You look really pale." Tony stared at her and laughed.

"Well, that's kinda what the blood this is pumping into me is for." He shook the IV stand that he was using as a support.

"Sorry." She hopped from one foot to the other. "I've had a lot of Caf-Pow today." A loud cough silenced the escapees and they both closed their eyes, their brilliant plan foiled by the persistent doctor. They both turned on the spot to face his glare.

"I though I told you not to leave your room, Agent DiNozzo? And I expected better of you Miss Sciuto." He said sternly.

"My wife is about to give birth to my kids. I want to be there."

"No. You need to avoid stress and be back in your room with the equipment needed to deal with any complications."

"I'll be more stressed if I can't be with my wife!" Tony yelled, just hoping that wherever Ziva was she could hear that he was trying to be there for her.

"No, Agent DiNozzo." The doctor took his arm and led the way back to the ward on the floor below.

"Then why can't she have the twins downstairs?"

"Because if there are any complications with the birth then they have more sophisticated, specialised equipment up here." The doctor sighed, exasperated by the federal agent's constant stubborn questioning which, he had to admit, if he were in the same position he would do the same things, ask the same questions.

"But millions of kids are born around the world away from hospitals and 'specialist equipment' every day and they are fine." Tony stopped outside the elevator, looking at his doctor's upraised eyebrow. "Okay, so maybe not millions, but quite a few."

"Agent DiNozzo, please stop arguing."

"Then let me see my wife." He said as a stream of very, very loud Hebrew expletives travelled easily down the long corridor. Tony's Hebrew wasn't fluent enough to be able to translate, but he definitely heard his name intermingled in with his wife's first language and the Probie's yelps of pain. "On second thoughts, it sounds like Gibbs and McGee have a pretty good hold on things up here. Maybe it would be best for me to recover properly." He nodded to the elevator as the doctor laughed and the three of them stepped in, the metal doors doing nothing against Ziva's threats and screams and curses.

"Do you understand anything she's saying?"

"Well, I'm not fluent in my wife's native tongue, but I am certain there was something about cursing the day my great grandfather defiled my great grandmother's honour." He ran a hand through his hair.

"Specific." The doctor laughed again. "She sure has a set of lungs on her."

"Oh, you have no idea." Tony joined in with the laughter, as did Abby.

"You realise that you are going to be living in a house with twins who are probably going to be even louder?" Abby sniggered as his face fell and they stepped out of the elevator, almost being hit by the director.

"Tony! What is going on?"

"Uh, Ziva's in labour. I would avoid the maternity ward if I were you. It's not the safest place in the world." Tony grinned.

"What?!"

"Mossad officer. Labour. I am surprised you cannot hear her screaming from here." Abby shrugged as the doctor left Tony in the capable hands of the two women. "There was a lot of Hebrew being yelled."

"Are you okay?" Jenny asked as Tony stopped walking to his room. He looked up and grinned. "I'm gonna be a father."

"Please tell me you have not only just realised that." Abby and Jenny exchanged glances.

"No, but it's real. It's really happening. It's not just a dream."

"Oh, God. It's going to be a really long night." The director groaned as they walked into the private room, rolling her eyes at Abby's smirk.

 **I like some parts more than I like others. I was actually going to leave it for longer, but the suspense was getting to me...**


	52. Chapter LII

**Another of my pre-written chapters. If there were to be a bell curve to show the distribution of pre-written chapters, the mean would be around here, in this section of the story, and it would have a very low standard deviation, with only a few outliers.**

 **Anyway, enough of the statistical analysis. It has no place in this story.**

 **I said it last chapter, I am going to say it now, and I will probably say it many times again.**

 **Not real, i.e. some points may be unrealistic. But this is fiction, it says so in the web address. (I think I have used that line before.) You do not believe me? Look at the top of your screen.**

 **Any discrepancies with the real world are to be blamed on reality – or at least your reality. My reality is sound. Sometimes.**

LII. A Baby Is God's Opinion That The World Should Go On.

Gibbs paced outside of the private room they had moved Ziva into. He glanced in once more as she continued to sleep off the sedative. Her voice had faltered and her grip on his hand had weakened. _It hurts, Abba_. That's what she had said. Her last words before he had been forced out of the room and McGee had been rushed off to the fracture and break ward to get his broken arm cared for as soon as she had let go of it. How could the birth of two tiny little things cause such chaos? He had forgotten – they were the children of Tony and Ziva – the combination of DNA alone was bound to cause worldwide natural disasters. The two infants had been whisked out of sight immediately and he hadn't heard anything in over an hour about them. Being born at 34 weeks was not ideal, he knew that, but if there was a problem he wanted them to tell him. He wanted someone to talk to him. He looked at his watch again and yawned at the ungodly hour. Doctor Green walked through the door and he ambushed her, his glare freezing her where she stood. "Where are they? Where are her children?"

"Agent Gibbs, I understand your concern, but it will be best if we can talk about this when Ziva is awake, don't you think?"

"No, no I do not think. When she wakes up her husband will still be downstairs in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound and whatever you tell her she will need him because otherwise you would have told me what is wrong. You haven't even told us the gender."

"We'll see what we can do about transferring them into the same room." She walked off and he growled. He watched as Ziva's head rolled to the side and he walked into the room, taking her hand as she blinked sleepily at him.

"Where are my babies?" Her voice was hoarse. He sighed and kissed her forehead, unable to look at her. "Gibbs, where are they?"

"Ziva…"

"Gibbs, tell me where my children are!" She yelled at him as loud as possible, attracting the attention of various members of staff. Doctor Green hurried through.

"Ziva, we're going to transfer you to a room with your husband momentarily."

"Tony? Has he got our babies?" Her face brightened at the thought. "If Tony has our babies then it is all going to be okay. Gibbs, why did you not just tell me that?" She laughed and shook her head as her boss continued to glare at her doctor. He just stared as she was transferred to a wheelchair and trailed behind as they wound down numerous corridors, the cartoon paintings of boats on the walls becoming more frequent – it was a naval hospital after all. His eye caught on a sign reading _Special Care Nursery_ and he bit his lip. He was nervous. He didn't want what ever was wrong to break her and at the rate her mood was growing increasingly optimistic, he could see the chances of her surviving what was coming growing slimmer and slimmer. They stopped and turned into another private room that held Abby, pandering over McGee's cast, and the director talking to Tony. No babies. Tony tried to sit up immediately when he saw Ziva and she beamed at him. He fell back in the bed when sitting up proved too painful. "How are they, Tony? Can I see them?" Tony's face fell. "You don't have them?"

"I thought you did." Tony's voice cracked. They both turned to the doctor, along with everyone else in the room. Silence descended and the air grew cold.

"Your children were born at 34 weeks which, although not always fatal, can cause problems." Ziva's happy exterior crumbled as she let out a sob. "Both of your children are in hot cots, which are keeping them at their optimum body temperature. Your son is healthy, with no problems other than being small, only 3lb 13oz. Your daughter is 3lb 8oz and is receiving oxygen through a nasal cannula. This is more precautionary than anything, and we are going to see how she improves, but we hope for her to be off the oxygen by tomorrow." She paused. "She has also failed her hearing test. This is not uncommon, particularly with premature births, and we will continue to test it every few days, however there is a high probability that her hearing issues are due to her inner ear not forming properly. Although there is a possibility that her hearing will improve with time, you will still need to consider her options. The hospital provides support and I have some pamphlets about treatments and cochlear implants. These are important things that need to be thought over thoroughly with a great deal of consideration." The whole room was silent except for Ziva's continuing sobs as they all tried to process the information. "If you would like we can transfer them here with you, but they need to stay in their isolettes as much as possible. At first we recommend that they are not held too much, as it can over stimulate them, which can hinder progress, but they do need to form bonds with you, so you can still touch them, hold their hands, feet." Tony nodded as he stroked Ziva's hair, her head lying on the bed next to him. The doctor disappeared and everyone stood or sat unsure of what to say.

"It's not gonna be so bad, you know." Tony said eventually as her tears subsided. "At least Abby has already taught us the basics of sign language. And she said that her hearing might improve." He tried to mask his own emotional pain as she moved her head to his lap and sniffed, her eyes fixed on the end of the bed as he continued to caress her head. Nobody knew quite what to do, that was at least until Abby ran over to Ziva and hugged her as tightly as she could without causing any pain to the woman in the wheelchair.

"I'm sorry, Ziva." She whispered in her friend's ear. "But Tony's right, you know – for once." She grinned and pulled back, looking between her family in the room. "She'll still be just as capable as he brother. And if she can't hear it also means that when her brother wakes up screaming in the night she won't wake up as well." The whole room chuckled at Abby's cheerfulness, Ziva cascading almost into hysterics at the state of affairs.

"What's so funny?" Tony asked as she looked up at him, new tears – tears of laughter – in her eyes.

"Only Abby could say something like that at such a time and get away with it." She laughed again and Abby grinned proudly. "If it had been McGee we all would have hit him."

"Well you have already broken my arm, Ziva. I don't think being hit would really hurt much."

"You should not have stood so close then." She shrugged. "I am sorry, McGee, but I would say that a broken arm is nothing compared to labour." Everyone turned and glared at him and he lowered his eyes in embarrassment.

"Of course, Ziva." Just then the door opened and Doctor Green and Ducky walked in with two portable incubators, a tiny mass of pink writhing in each.

"I have to say Anthony, Ziva, you have both done a very good job. They really are beautiful children." Ducky grinned as he moved the bassinette with the pink-hatted baby closer to Ziva. She was so small that the new parents struggled to comprehend her being okay – apart from her hearing of course.

"And she's healthy? She's fine apart from not being able to hear us?" Tony asked. It hadn't really hit home yet that his baby girl might never be able to hear him tell her how beautiful she was.

"They both are." He smiled. "Have you thought about names?"

They looked to one-another and smiled. "Well, we were thinking for a girl, Adabelle, shortened to Ada." Ziva looked at her daughter and then to her son. "And for a boy Ichabod."

"I want to shorten Ichabod to Bod, but she won't let me." Tony laughed as he looked at their children. Their beautiful, perfect children. "Adabelle Antonia David-DiNozzo and Ichabod Flavio David-DiNozzo." He grinned.

"Half Italian, half Hebrew. Half you, half me." She wrapped her hand around his and smiled at the contrast of her olive skin against his fairly pale skin in comparison. "A perfect compromise."

"Maybe we should let you rest." Jenny stood up and smiled. "Congratulations."

"They are by far the best things that have happened to anyone at NCIS in the history of earth. Apart from maybe Gibbs shaving his mustache." Abby grinned, still watching the two infants. McGee tugged her away gently as the room emptied, leaving just Tony, Ziva, the twins and Gibbs.

"You know, DiNozzo, I think you have finally, _finally_ , after all these years of trying, not only got something right, but got something perfect." He walked over and placed a hand on the man's good shoulder. "Well done, Tony. You've done good." He smiled before walking over to Ziva. "You did wonderful. Even if you did break McGee's arm." He chuckled slightly and kissed her forehead, squeezing the hand that wasn't entwined with Tony's. "I knew that these two would wreak havoc, but I thought their trail of carnage wouldn't start until they were maybe able to crawl. Look how wrong I was." He stood up and looked at them. "Tony's been shot, McGee has a broken arm, and you're not gonna leave their side until you can take them home, and then a few months after that, minimum. I am down a whole team. I wonder when the earthquakes will start." He chuckled. "Gives me a couple of weeks off, I guess. I suppose you'll want me to make a start on their beds for when they grow out of the cots?" All three laughed as Gibbs stood with his two children and his two grandchildren. He nodded to them, kissing Ziva's forehead once more and giving each child one last look before he left to find the others.

"We'll get through this." Tony said confidently, and for the first time he truly believed those words as they left his lips. "We can get through anything."

"She will never hear us tell her how much we love her, Tony." Ziva whispered quietly as fresh tears trickled down her cheeks and she slipped her free hand into the incubator to hold Ada's tiny fingers.

"And that won't matter, Ziva." He tried to hold back his own tears and failed as his voice quivered. "It won't matter because even if she will never be able to hear us, she will still know that we love her and her brother more than anything in the world. She is still perfect."

"She is more than perfect, Tony." She ran a finger along Adabelle's fragile little arm and gave a watery smile. "They both are."

* * *

"They're gonna be alright, aren't they Timmy?" Abby asked, her voice small as she drove McGee back to his apartment.

"Abby, Ziva is the strongest, most adaptable person in the universe and Tony is the second most loving person in the world. They are, and I hate to admit it, going to be brilliant parents."

"You know what's funny?" Abby looked across at him.

"No, Abby, I don't." He yawned, the painkillers they had given him for his arm were starting to make him drowsy.

"They are so little and yet they have such long names. Their names are almost longer than them."

"Well, they were premature. Bod's 3lb 13oz and Ada's 3lb 8oz." He had already slipped into the habit of shortening Ichabod's name. He would have to stop that before Ziva caught him, else he would probably suddenly realise that he could learn to live without the use of his fingers.

"Of course, there is one slight problem." She mused.

"Hm?"

"Well, yeah. The babygrows I brought them are way too big."

Tim laughed quietly, keeping his eyes closed as his head rested on the car window. "They'll grow, Abs. They'll grow."

"Timmy?"

"Hm, Abs?"

"Who's the first?"

"The first what?"

"Most loving person in the world?"

"You, Abs." He sighed contently, moving his arm slightly so it was more comfortable. Abby kept her eyes on the road, letting a small smile grace her lips.

 **When I was little I had an imaginary friend called Ichabod, shortened to Bod.**

 **Anyway, the next chapter is not finished yet, but it is over half way complete, so that will be up in a day or two.**


	53. Chapter LIII

**I have three possibilities of the way I can take this in reference to Ada's hearing. Either her hearing will be fine, she will have cochlear implants, or she will not. I want, no that is the wrong word, I would never wish it upon anyone, but I had planned for it to be the last of the choices, because I wanted to see how they would deal with this development.**

 **You are all going to be experts on Roman numerals by the time this is over. I can guarantee it. I actually have no idea why I numbered the chapters in Roman numerals, I just did.**

LIII. Kindness Is A Language Which The Deaf Can Hear And The Blind Can See.

"Ziva, you've just had a C-section. I really think you should be sitting down." Abby said as she bit her lip, watching Ziva carefully play with Ichabod's hand.

"Abby, it was a week ago. I am fine."

"Tony won't be happy if he sees you out of bed."

"Tony is asleep. He will not see me." She pouted defiantly, watching her two children.

"Do you know how long you'll all be in here?"

"I am being discharged today. Tony should be discharged in a week. The twins – Ichabod will be discharged before Ada. They said that he is much stronger than she is. We do not know when that will be though. Dr Green said it could be a week or two, depending upon how well they develop."

"You're all gonna be okay. Have you heard any more on Ada's hearing?"

"The paediatric audiologist should be here soon. He has tested her hearing every day since she was born and seen no improvement. He says that this, too, can be normal, but he always looks more and more worried every time he checks on her." She sniffed and shook her head. "I do not know why I am crying, it is very unlike me."

"You're crying because you're concerned about your baby." The scientist wasn't a fool. She wasn't going to bring up any of the times she had seen Ziva cry during the pregnancy. She valued her life. "They are both beautiful babies."

"Yes, they are. Who won the sweepstake then?"

"Well," she pulled out an envelope and handed it to Ziva, "that's what Gibbs guessed. Before the ultrasound." Ziva frowned but slid the slip of paper out anyway.

 _Angels._ On the other side it read: _Girl, Boy._

"How did he know?"

"I think he's psychic!"

"He's Gibbs. He knows things. What is it he knows?" Tony asked from where he was lying in bed.

"He knew I was having a girl and a boy."

"He's Gibbs." Tony said, as if it explained everything. It did not.

"But he knew I was expecting twins before we knew I was expecting twins. It makes no sense."

"I don't know, Sweetcheeks. I gave up long ago trying to figure out how he does it." There was a knock on the door and a doctor in a white coat came in. "Hey Doc. How are you feeling today?"

"That's my question." Dr Thompson chuckled slightly as he walked over to Tony's bedside. He was maybe in his mid thirties and had a small, private smile.

"Well, I'm doing just fine. Would like to be out of this bed, and I would be doing better if I hadn't been shot, but other than that I'm just peachy."

"I want to decrease your morphine again today."

"And I want to go home today. Did nobody ever tell you that 'I wants don't get'?"

"Tony!" Ziva admonished, shaking her head at her husband's sarcasm.

"Y'know, if we held someone this long against their will and they were innocent, we would be in a lot of trouble."

"That might have something to do with the fact that you are not innocent." Ziva sniggered, walking over and pressing her lips to his softly.

"There is that." He nodded. "So Doc, when can I start moving about again?"

"A couple more days. It might actually do you some good to get some fresh air." He smiled sympathetically at Tony's grumpy expression. "How are the two little angels doing?"

"Ada is still not responding to sounds." Ziva stated quietly, looking at her daughter. "Ichabod is doing well."

"You know, your family has caused quite a stir in this hospital. We have nurses and doctors from every ward and department enquiring after you all. What with Tony's escapades and the twins being, apparently, the 'most endearing children to be born at this hospital in the past five years', well, even with patient confidentiality, word gets around. You're practically famous." He chuckled as Ziva blushed and Tony beamed. "Yes, I must say your children are quite a hit with some of the female nurses in particular. It's only natural with such gorgeous infants, but still…" He started checking Tony's wound, along with his charts.

"Well, they have two very good looking parents." Tony boasted. "But they exceed both of us in looks. By far the most beautiful children I have ever seen."

"I would apologise for my husband, but..."

"Apologies are a sign of weakness." Abby and Tony chorused, grinning, causing the doctor to laugh and shake his head.

"Why apologise anyway. It's a parent's prerogative to be proud of their children."

"See, Zee-vah. It's our prerogative."

"No need to sound so smug, Tony. You copied that big word off the doctor." Abby said, perching on the end of Ziva's empty bed. Tony stuck his tongue out in childish response before turning to the doctor.

"So, Doc. What's the verdict?"

"You're healing well. A couple more days and you should be good to go, so long as your arm stays in that sling. Between three to six months, depending upon how well you rest it. Though with these two, I do not know how much rest it will be getting." He chuckled, moving over to the isolettes and admiring each of the infants. "And how are you doing, Ziva?"

"I am very well, thank you."

"I'm sure you're going to both be staying here until your children are discharged, yes?"

"What do you think, Doctor Thompson?" She smiled, her eyes not leaving her daughter's face as her hand was sat securely on Ada's head, over the soft pink hat.

"I think that you two are going to be very good parent's indeed." There was another knock on the door and he looked up, smiling when another white lab coat walked in. He bowed his head and ducked out, with one final comment reminding Tony to rest.

After the myriad of doctors, nurses and orderlies that had been flowing through the room, each with a different job and purpose, it was becoming harder to remember who did what. But the new parents both knew the face of the audiologist, had the laughter-lines committed to memory. His face in old age had become a relief map of scars and wrinkles and blemishes, each one telling a story and laying out the tale of his life, a path to be followed through mountains and valleys with carefully told memories and well remembered pasts. Another person, unknown, followed him, a young woman in pale purple scrubs.

"Ziva, Tony, how are you today?" There were hints of an accent, faded with time and weathering, but still traceable, hidden under many years of working with American people and using American words.

"As well as our current predicament allows."

"This is Charlotte. She's a med student, and was hoping to observe. Is that alright with you?"

Tony looked to Ziva for confirmation before nodding. "Fine."

"Alright then. We will just take a look at Adabelle and Ichabod's ears, check their responses, the usual routine." He smiled, waiting for Ziva's subtle nod of permission before advancing closer towards her offspring. There was a silent understanding between the two, the warrior and the doctor. From the first time they had met, they had both seen the heaviness in one another's eyes, the heaviness of things too large for comprehension and too tragic for explanation. It was the heaviness of pain and loss, of seeing friends die on the battlefields and of never hearing from family members again. It was a mutual respect. He would wait for her permission and she would listen patiently, unlike with other doctors, to whom she had proved to be difficult and rebellious, over protective of her children around them and overprotective of her husband too. But with the audiologist, Dr Wilson, there was a quiet trust in the old man. "Have you noticed Adabelle responding to any external noises? To either of you speaking, or to any loud noises that might have been heard? Maybe something that woke Ichabod up, also woke Adabelle up?"

Ziva bit her lip and looked down, shaking her head. Her voice was quiet when she spoke. "No."

"Okay. Not to worry. This could still just be caused by fluid build up in her ear canals."

"Is that what you really think it is, Doctor, or is that what you have to say until you are certain?"

Doctor Wilson smiled sympathetically. "Have hope. I have known cases of infants displaying no signs of hearing for a week, two weeks even, and then the fluid drains and they go on to have perfectly normal hearing." He started the AABR screening, a process that Tony and Ziva had become familiar with over the week. They knew the routine; sit quietly for 15 minutes, wait patiently. Ziva sat on the edge of Tony's bed, grasping his hand tightly in her own and staring at the two bassinettes, the doctor working studiously over them. Abby stayed sat cross-legged on the empty bed, watching the family – her family – as they waited for, dreaded, results that might be revealed.

* * *

Gibbs knocked quietly on the glass door before slipping in with Mina in his arms and Elsie by his side. Tony and Ziva lay curled together on his hospital bed, the tubes and cables of Tony's drip tangled around them as they each emitted gentle snores, whilst Abby sat reading through a pile of pamphlets and the twins slept, silent other than the occasional coo or whimper.

"Hey." Said Abby quietly as she looked up, her eyes tired.

"Hi." Gibbs kept his voice to the same level as Abby had. "How are they doing?"

"Still no improvement in Ada's hearing. It is not looking good." She sighed, looking over to the couple, ensnared by the tubes that secured Tony to his IV.

"What you doing?"

"Just reading. Research about cochlear implants and hearing aids and that. There's so much here, Gibbs. So many pros and cons to all of the avenues. I mean," She yawned, rubbing her eyes. The poor lighting in the hospital room had been doing nothing to ease the load, "I'm a scientist, and even I'm struggling to make head nor tail of this. I don't know how new parents, new parents who are distressed by the idea that their little baby might be have hearing-loss no less, are able to understand this and make the right decision with it."

"How long have you been going at it?" The boss-man took a seat next to her, nodding to Elsie as she hesitantly made her way over to the bassinettes. "Remember what we said, no touching unless Ziva says you can." The little girl nodded, standing on tip-toes so she could peer into the clear encasements that held the two infants.

"Since the audiologist left about three hours ago. I feel like I'm going round in circles."

Gibbs paused. "If Ada was your little girl, what would you do?"

"Well, the benefits of having a…"

"I didn't ask for the benefits, Abs, I asked for the opinion of the woman who grew up with deaf parents, who knows what it is like, knows what they struggled with, how they felt." He placed a hand on her knee, clad with a long, white sock.

Abby took Mina, bouncing her slightly in her arms as she considered his question, her brow creased. "Personally, I would let nature run its course. My parents were happy the way they were, they liked their lifestyle, and I liked growing up with them like that. Yes, there were days when I wanted normal parents, parents who could hear me when I was in school performances, and parents that other kids understood, but really, I couldn't imagine it any other way than it was." She sighed. "I would let Ada decide, when she was older, what she wanted to do, whether she wanted cochlea implants."

"That what you'd really do, Abby?" Neither Gibbs nor Abby had noticed the snoring stop, and they both turned to stare at Tony and Ziva, whose eyes were fixed on Abby.

"I, I…" She shook her head. "It is not…cochlea implants, if suitable, work best when used as early on as possible, as does every treatment, but I…" She hesitated. "I just… This is your decision, it is none of my…"

"Abby, you said it should be Adabelle's decision."

"Yeah, but I was just, I mean, you are her parents, and it is up to you and she would probably be grateful to have cochlea implants, so I just…"

"Boss, what do you think?" Tony asked, cutting Abby off.

"Ada will love you what ever happens, and you will love her."

The parents were silent for a moment, small smiles on their faces. "Thank you, Gibbs."

"Ziva, why can't we hold the babies?"

"Because they're real delicate." Tony supplied for Ziva, who was staring at the infants from where she lay in his arms, zoned out and focused on her children – every slight movement and every sound made. He rubbed her arm with his good arm and kissed the top of her head. "You okay?"

"Mhmm." She nodded. "I am just thinking."

"About Ada?"

"Is it selfish to want her to be able to hear us?"

"No, it's not selfish. It's natural." Gibbs said. "It's your decision, a decision that might not need to be made."

Ziva sat up, extending her arms for Elsie to climb up onto the bed and curl into her side. "You have had a haircut."

"Mmhm." She tugged at the strands, shaking her head and laughing. "The lady did not do it short enough."

"Well how short do you want it to go, Sweetheart?" Ziva chuckled quietly, ignoring the other adults as they continued to discuss Ada's future.

"Really, really short."

"If it goes much shorter you will have no hair left."

"What if I want no hair?"

"Then that is your decision. It is your hair, I cannot tell you what you want." She ruffled Elsie's hair. "But I like you just the way you are. You and your hair."

"Can I see the babies, Ziva?"

"Of course you can." She picked the child up, being careful as Tony, Gibbs and Abby all cautioned, and carried her over to the bassinettes. "This is Ichabod." She smiled, pride – and tears – glistening in her eyes. "And this is Adabelle."

"Why are they in boxes? Mina wasn't in a box when she was a baby." The little girl's face was a picture of puzzlement as she looked between the cribs, then over to her sister, sat on the bed with Abby and Gibbs, to Ziva and then back to the infants.

"They are keeping them warm."

"Wasn't it warm enough in your tummy?"

"There was not room in my tummy. They got too big."

"But they are tiny, Ziva? How could they not fit when your tummy was so big?"

Ziva opened her mouth in offence. "Are you saying I was fat?" She broke into a grin, laughing as Elsie tried to think of something to say. "It is okay, I was joking."

"Yeah, I wish she was joking when I said that." Tony grumbled from the bed, winking at Elsie and making her laugh.

"It is simply because I love Elsie more."

"Oh, it is now, is it? Well, in that case I will just have to leave then. Oh, well…" He sighed dramatically and started standing up.

"Tony, stop being such a drama queen."

" _I_ am not a drama queen." Tony objected.

"Want a bet, DiNozzo?"

"No, Boss. Of course not." He looked to Gibbs.

"Face it, DiNozzo, the children will always come first." He pouted, so Ziva walked over to him, placing Elsie on the floor and perching on the edge of the bed, leaning over him. "But you are a very close second." She pressed her lips to his, letting them linger slightly longer than Gibbs felt comfortable with. He coughed and they broke apart, smirking at their boss. "I love you."

"Oh, good, 'cause I love you, too."


	54. Chapter LIV

**Prewritten, like the last chapter. And the one before that. And the one before that, and – you get the picture. This is another short one, but I liked it as it is. And it was not a bad word count this time either. Only 728, or there about.**

 **Although, about three chapters ago this story surpassed 100,000 words I think, so that is exciting.**

LIV. A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Must Begin With A Single Step

Tony stared at his wife's still body as she lay in the bed next to his, their entwined hands bridging the gap between them. She looked broken. Her baby would never hear her tell her how much she loved her. She had outwardly taken the news well, or as well as she was expected to, but he could see how much it was hurting her. Who was he kidding, it was killing him too. His perfect little girl would never hear him tell her a joke, read her a story.

A soft whimpering came from one of the bassinets. He rolled over and grunted when a splinter of pain ran through his shoulder. He reached his good arm up for the call button on the wall and waited for a nurse, making sure he hadn't woken Ziva.

"Is everything okay?" A nurse poked her head around the door to their private room and smiled.

"She's crying." Tony pointed in the direction of his baby daughter, his face full of fear. "Is she in pain?" The nurse walked over and checked the infant in the incubator.

"No, just lonely."

"Can I hold her?" The nurse paused and bit her lip, looking between father and daughter. "Please. I'll be careful."

She smiled again and lifted the small child out, carrying her over to the bed. Tony shifted, scrunching up his face when the pain intensified as he reached out for the pink blanket. "Careful. Like that." She nodded when he cradled the child in his arms. Not an easy operation, considering the sling. "Just call if you need anything else."

"Thanks." He nodded, looking down at the pink, wrinkled nose and watery blue eyes. "Hi there. I'm your Daddy. I know that you can't hear me, and you probably never will, unless you get implants, which me and Ima want to be your decision, when you're old enough to make it, but I just wanted to tell you that you're beautiful, and so precious. So, so precious." He whispered, stroking her cheek with one finger. "And I want you to know that me and your Ima love you, no matter what, and we always will. We will always love you and your brother equally, because you are the best thing that has ever happened to us. And it's not just me and Ima who love you, because Gibbs and Jenny and Abby and McGee and Ducky and everyone else loves you so much too. And they love you no matter what as well, because we're all family, and that's what family does. Family loves unconditionally." He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and held her tiny hand in between his thumb and forefinger. "I want you to promise me something, Adabelle. I want you to promise me that no matter how tough life gets, and no matter how difficult you find something, that you will stay strong, and brave and confident. Because you are so special, and you have to remember that." He sighed and looked at her small face, her wide eyes looking up at him. "I'm not gonna lie to you, Baby Girl, 'cause you deserve better than that. I don't know how easy your life's gonna be, but me and your Ima are going to do our very, very best to make it as good as possible for you and your brother. That is my promise to you." His voice cracked as he bit back tears. "And you have to know that whatever happens, wherever we are, we will always love you, and we will always be with you here," he tapped her pink babygrow just above her heart, "even if one day we don't come home to you, okay, because nothing can get in the way of how much we love you. If we don't come home it was because we were trying to make the world better for you and Bod." He looked up when he heard a sniffle. "Hey. I didn't mean to wake you."

"You did not wake me." She said shakily, wiping tears from her cheeks.

"Don't cry. Why are you crying?"

"Because…what you said was so beautiful." She sniffed.

"I try my best." He smiled at her. "It's gonna be okay, you know. We'll pull through. It's what we do best."

"I love you, Tony."

"I love you too."

 **Short and sweet. I hope. Or maybe not. I do not know. Hmmm. Let me know what you think. About anything. Well, anything related to the story. I think I know the consensus referencing Ada's hearing, and I also think I know what I am going to do, it is just hoping that people will stick with me through it.**


	55. Chapter LV

**I know, you all hate me. I understand that, it is a feeling I have gotten used to over the years. This is a really long Author's Note, which I do recommend reading if you want to understand why I doing what I am doing. I do not want to see comments of 'give Ada hearing' or 'let them be happy' if you have not read it, because it is important.**

 **I have had one or two comments along the lines of 'why can they not be happy for once, let Ada hear, etc. etc.' And though I understand why people want Ada to hear, I do not understand what that has to do with happiness. Well, I do on a superficial level, but that is just it. Superficial.**

 **And in response I would argue that, firstly, they have been happy, have they not? Were they not smiling and laughing on their wedding day, were they not happy to be getting married? Or did I write that really badly and they came across as miserable? I have been going round asking everyone I know whether they are happy and whether they have perfect lives – not actually relating to this, I started a while ago – and the results were 50/50. Some people, people I know who have had hardship and difficulty, say that they are happy, and although not perfect, life has given them more or less what they wanted. Others have said that they are happy, but life is certainly not perfect; they would like for there to be enough money to pay the mortgage, for their son not to be in trouble all the time, for their family to all love one another and talk to one another… But I think my favourite answer was from my Grandmother. I curled up by her side and put my head on her shoulder and asked her if she was happy, and if her life was perfect. My Grandmother is disabled, has heart problems, can barely move her fingers, has outlived two of her children and one of her grandchildren, never saw her parents after they kicked her out, her husband is hard of hearing and she cannot hold the books that used to let her escape from the world, but do you know what she said? She said she was happy because she had met all of us, and even though she wished all of her children had lived to grow old, she had still had the fortune of meeting them, and she still had them in her heart. And she said that that was what made her life perfect, and it did not matter about anything else, because she had love. Now, that seems like a long load of nothing, but it brings me to my point that, as The Beatles sang, all you need is love. Obviously, my sceptical outlook on life would argue that you do need more than love, but I would say that the point there is pretty clear.**

 **My second point follows on from that. Why does Ada need to be able to hear for them to be happy? Truly good parents are happy with their child, no matter whether they can hear, or see, or sing, or dance, or paint, or divide 89 by Pi mentally. What I am saying is that it should not matter. I would argue that happiness comes from embracing our differences (even if this does not always work). If we embraced the differences that make ourselves and others unique then nobody would have anything to make fun of anyone about, because there would always be something about them that can be used against them. Of course, this would never work, but imagine if it did. I would like a world like that, where it is okay to be different. Because no matter what anybody says, I do not think that it is at the moment, and I wish it was. I wish to show that love conquers all, even if it is not always easy. (Unrealistic, yes, but I do not care)**

 **My third and final point is a short point: if they were always happy, what would I write about? I personally think it would seem false, boring even, to read only about the happy times in their lives. But I do still write the happy times, do I not? If not, then you may either put up with what I do write, or I see no point in reading if you are not enjoying it. I do of course hope that everyone is enjoying it, but I do also understand if you wish to stop. It is your decision. (One more point: it is my story, and I already have chapters written out.)**

 **Okay, that was a long Author's Note, and maybe harsh in some respects, but I felt it necessary. Sorry. I should win an award for longest Author's Note, though. (825 words, the chapter is only 2200 words.)**

LV. Promise Is A Big Word. It Either Makes Something Or It Breaks Everything.

"You have to promise me, Ichabod, that you will help me and your Daddy take care of your sister." She cradled the small boy in her arms, his blue eyes staring up at her as the two others in the room slept. Adabelle was not woken by Ichabod's cries. Maybe Abby was right, maybe it would make life slightly easier. "You are a blessing, my little boy. No matter what anybody tells you. You and your sister are so, so special. You cannot let anybody tell you different." She looked across to Tony and sighed. "Our world, it is not a nice place. People kill and maim for the most trivial of reasons. But your Daddy and me, we are going to keep you safe for as long as we can, and we are going to try and make the world a better place for you. But, one day, if we do not come back to you, can you promise me that you will look after Ada for me? Elsie and Mina, they are going to be like your sisters too, but they are older and they will help you as much as they can. And Grandpa Gibbs, he will look after you, and so will Jenny and Ducky and Abby and Tim. We are all going to keep you safe. We are all going to make the world a better place for you. One day, my child, this world will be a happy place. Children will be able to laugh and play, mothers will be able to send their husbands off to work and their children off to school without any fear that they will never see them again. Fathers will be able to take their children out without having any fear that it will be the last time they go out as a family together. It will never happen in my lifetime, or your Daddy's lifetime, but maybe in yours. You are lucky, Ichabod. You were born in America, to an American father. You have less to fear. I did not have that luxury. I promise you that I will put you through nothing that I went through. We will teach you to ride a bike and fly a kite, not shoot a gun and throw a knife. You will be as safe and as happy as we can make you. That, I will promise. You can be whoever you want to be. That, I will promise."

"That was beautiful, Ziva." A voice said and her head snapped up, anger and confusion flaring in her eyes.

"What are _you_ doing here?" She hissed, pulling Ichabod closer to herself as the man approached. Her eyes flickered over to Adabelle's bassinette and the man followed her gaze.

"Ah, yes. I heard about your daughter's hearing. I am sorry about that. No mother should be put through such pain at the thought of her child's discomfort." He smiled, walking over and looking down at the child still sleeping peacefully in her bassinette, oblivious to her mother's sudden distress. "They are beautiful children, Ziva. I can only imagine that our child would have been this beautiful, if not more. She would have had dark, dark skin, like ours, not like the paler skin that these two have. She would have had dark hair, with beautiful curls and chocolate brown eyes like yours. She would have had an accent like ours, too, when she was finally old enough to speak."

"What are you doing here?"

"Your father, he told me that you were married to an American. He told me that you were expecting a child, too. I just had to see for myself." He shrugged and made his way over to Ziva, glancing towards Tony to check he was still asleep. "Your son is beautiful, too. They both look like you." He peered over. "You always said that you wanted one of each. I wonder, Ziva… If you had managed to keep our baby safe, would you have told me? Would we have been a family?"

"It was not my fault. I did nothing wrong, Malachi."

"You did not tell me."

"You are married."

"That did not bother you when we slept together."

"Yes, it did. You know it did." Tears were welling up in her eyes. "We were on a mission. I felt bad every night because of it."

"I had a right to know. Even when you lost the baby, you should have told me."

"How do you even know about the child?"

"Your father had some enlightening things to say about you. He invited me for tea. We had a lovely talk about his only living daughter."

"What do you want from me, Malachi?"

"I want you back."

"You are married." She repeated.

"Sara died, not long after you left for America." He said, emotionless. She knew he could be callous, but this was low, even for him.

"I am married."

"Your father can deal with your husband. Or I can. I did try to have someone else do it for me, to keep my hands clean, so to speak, but obviously, if you want something done, you must do it yourself." He smiled, this time maliciously. "How would you like me to end it for him. I can be nice."

"You do not know the meaning of nice." She snarled.

"Is that what you thought all those years ago, my love, when you would curl up beside me?"

"I was 19. You were 26. We were young. Naïve."

"You said you loved me."

"I was mistaken." She looked over to Tony. "I love my husband. And I love my children."

"Would you have loved our baby, Ziva?"

"I was never given a chance to find out." She looked down at her son. It was almost time for his feed. "How did you get in here?"

"It is amazing what a set of scrubs enables you to do." He looked down at himself, the mint green scrubs almost identical to the ones Ziva had been wearing not days beforehand. She just had to keep him talking until a nurse, or doctor, or Gibbs came in. Then they would be safe. Then Malachi would be caught.

"I killed your henchman." She looked at him.

"He disappointed me. He would not have survived long anyway. You did me a favour."

"It was unintentional, I assure you."

"We could try again, you know." He leaned down so his minty breath brushed against her ear. If she didn't have Ichabod in her arms she would have reacted. He would have been pinned to the floor in an instant. But Ichabod was in her arms and she was helpless. "There are so many American families who would do anything to have children, even if they are not their own. Adoption is always a viable option. Ichabod would be easy to find a home for. Adabelle, she might take some work, what with her hearing, but I think I could manage it. And your Tony, well, I have decided that I will kill him quickly. A shot to the back of the head should do it. And then we can try again. We can have a child, and this time you will tell me about her. A little girl, I hope. We can call her Tali, after your sister." He looked at the fear mixed with the hatred in her eyes. "Give me a month, Ziva, and everything will be perfect again." He pressed his lips to hers and grinned, an evil glint in his eyes. He had barely left the room before Ziva was dialling Gibbs number, tears flowing rapidly down her cheeks.

"Gibbs, you need to get to the hospital. Phone hospital security. Tell them to stop a man dressed in scrubs from leaving. His name is Malachi Levy. He hired the man who shot Tony." She shuddered with tears.

"Ziva? I'm already on my way. What happened?"

"Just get him Gibbs. Please?" She hung up and slid out of bed, ignoring any pain caused when her stitches pulled as she walked over to the empty bassinette and placed Ichabod in it. She then headed over to the small bathroom and pulled out the toothbrush, toothpaste and mouthwash from the wash-bag that Abby had brought, violently scrubbing her teeth and the inside of her mouth clean.

* * *

It was the hurried speaking of the one-sided conversation that woke him. His eyes opened to the bright light of the room as a figure walked through his unfocused vision, carrying a child. It wasn't until the woman walked into the bathroom that he realised it was his wife carrying one of his children. It was the muffled crying mingled with the sound of running water that alarmed him enough to get out of bed, despite thedoctors orders. The pain wasn't as bad as when he had first woken up with a bullet wound, three days prior, but it still hurt like hell. He tugged the IV drip along side him and knocked on the bathroom door. "Ziva, what's wrong?" The sobs became more muffled, but they were still there. "Ziva, Honey, I'm really worried about you. The last time you locked yourself in a bathroom you were taken tohospital and I didn't see you for a week." He tried the handle and was surprised to find it opened, revealing his wife, standing at the sink, her face a mess of tears and her toothbrush in her hand as her body shook. "What's wrong? What's happened?" She didn't reply, just shied away from him when he moved closer. "You're scaring me, Ziva. Please? What's wrong?"

"Ziva!" Gibbs ran into the room.

"Gibbs, what's going on?"

"I don't know." He said as he checked on the two infants. Ichabod was starting to wail and Adabelle was starting to stir, although he knew that that was just due to hunger.

"Gibbs!"

"I don't know, DiNozzo." He walked to the doorway of the bathroom. "Ziva, you need to tell me what happened." His voice was soft and quiet. She cast a quick glance to Tony before shaking her head. "Tony, call for a nurse. The twins need feeding." He said, just as softly, sending Tony the message that what ever was going on was going to be dealt with carefully. "McGee is going to be outside the room, if you need anything, ask him, but only if it is really important. Abby and the director will be here in half an hour. They'll help." He moved to Ziva, confiscating the toothbrush and handing her a glass of water. She rinsed her mouth and, still shaking, leant into his side. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and lead her out of the hospital room, nodding at McGee's concerned expression, down the corridor and into the first empty room he could find. He sat her on the bed and looked at her. "Tell me what happened."

"I was holding Ichabod, talking to him. And then this voice, his voice, he told me that what I was saying was beautiful. I have not seen him since I was nineteen. He started telling me how beautiful Adabelle and Ichabod are and how beautiful our child would have been, if…and then he started saying how we could be together again, and how he could…kill Tony and how he could…put Ada and Bod up for adoption and…and…and…" The tears started again. "I was holding Bod, I should have…"

"Ziva, it's going to be fine. We'll find him."

"They didn't get him?" Gibbs sighed and shook his head.

"Not yet. Security's on high alert, but four men in scrubs left the building between the time you called and the time I managed to get through to security. Many more men in civilian attire left too. If he is still here, we'll find him, but…"

"He has probably left." She nodded.

"Who is he, Ziva?"

"Malachi Levy. He and I…we worked together when I was in Mossad. We also had a relationship."

"The child you lost?"

"Yes." She nodded, looking at her feet where they hung off the edge of the bed. "Tony told you?"

"When you were in hospital the first time. He said you told no one though."

"My father told him. Apparently his wife died just after I came here. He said that in one month we will be together again."

"What was with the teeth?"

"He said we will be together again and then he…he…he…" She shuddered at the memory that made her sick. "I can still feel his lips on mine and I…" Her face crumpled and Gibbs stood up, pulling her into a hug. His chest dampened the sound of her screams of anguish. The door opened and a confused orderly looked in.

"Er, sorry, this room was supposed to be empty. I was just going to…"

"Yeah, we'll be gone in a minute." Gibbs nodded and he backed away.

"I love Tony and the twins, Gibbs. I do not want them to get hurt because of me."

"And they won't." He rubbed circles on her back. "I won't let anyone hurt my family. Not this time. I promise."

 **Oh, and to whomever left the review about seeing the rainbows; thank you, it made me smile, and I wanted to reply, but as you are a guest, I shall have to suffice with this: thank you for understanding and sticking with it. (And for seeing the happiness.)**


	56. Chapter LVI

**It feels like ages since I have written anything, when in fact it has not been long at all.**

 **Oh, and I just realised, as I was reading back on things, that all the way back in chapter…15, I think, Ziva said that it was just a one-night stand with Malachi, but then in the last chapter I made it sound like something more. I think I am going to go with it being the latter. Sorry for not paying attention when I was writing it, I shall try harder from now on.**

LVI. When Words Become Unclear, I Shall Focus With Photographs. When Images Become Inadequate, I Shall Be Content With Silence.

"I dunno, McGee. I just woke up, okay, and she was crying, and I…" Tony's head snapped up when the door opened and Ziva walked through, her face stained with tears and Gibbs arm around her shoulders. She stayed calm and collected, her posture strict as she made her way over to him, but as soon as she reached his side she melted into him, her body quaking with unshed tears. He looked over to his boss, the question in his eyes clear.

Gibbs gave a subtle nod, a promise to explain later. "McGee, let's go. There'll be an agent outside your door at all times. I'll be back later to see how you're doing."

"Thank you, Gibbs," her voice was tight as she buried her face into the side of Tony's neck, not relaxing as his good arm rubbed circles on her back. He shifted on the bed so he was lying down, pulling her with him.

"You going to tell me what's going on?" The distraught, fearful look in her eyes as she looked up at him made his heart feel leaden, his chest constricting. "You can tell me. Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"I love you."

"I know you do. What's going on?" He frowned, his eyes searching hers. "Please tell me. I want to help."

"I…" She slipped off the edge of the bed, walking over to the isolettes and taking Ada's tiny hand between her fingers. "When I was nineteen, I miscarried…" Her voice cracked slightly, her shoulders quivering.

Tony eased himself to a sitting position, his brow furrowed and his voice tight whilst being as gentle as he knew how to be. "I know."

"The child – baby – was conceived whilst I was on a mission, with the Mossad officer that I was working with. He was older, married, and I hated myself every night for it. But we were undercover and we had to do whatever we had to do," her voice was fading, and he was having to strain to hear, but he did not want to interrupt her, "his name was Malachi Levy. I have not seen him since I left for Haifa to stay with José. Or I had not, until this morning. He was in scrubs, like a doctor, and he said…he said awful, awful things. It was he who had hired the man who shot you, and he said he is going to try again."

"How'd he find out?"

"My father. Apparently they had tea." She responded bitterly. "I am sorry, Tony. I am so sorry. I have endangered your life, and Ada and Ichabod's lives. I should have done something, I should have…"

"Should have what, Ziva? There is nothing that could've been done." He said softly. He was uncertain whether she was talking about when she was nineteen, or the present day, but he knew that there was nothing that anyone could have done at either time. He exhaled quietly when she remained holding Ada's hand and staring out of the window, gritting his teeth together as he swivelled round so his legs hung out of the bed, his feet touching the floor. He stood up slowly and made his way over to her, wrapping his good arm around her waist and burying his face into her hair.

"But, what if…?"

"No 'but's, no 'what if's, there's no point in them. We can't change what's already happened, we can only move on from where we are, making the best of what we have."

"I was the one who got you shot, Tony."

He snorted as she turned in his arm. "Hardly. It was your psycho ex-boyfriend, not you. If it had been you, you wouldn't have left it to somebody else, and you would have done a much better job."

"He was never my boyfriend."

"Would you prefer 'Lover'? 'Cause I certainly wouldn't."

"Fine then, leave it at boyfriend." She held her finger up. "Ex-boyfriend. For a long time."

"For a long, long time." He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Gibbs'll get him. He always does."

"Malachi was trained by my father. Gibbs will never catch him."

"And Gibbs is…Gibbs. And, you were trained by your father too, which means you know all the tricks of the trade, so to speak. So, with you and Gibbs combined, and with the rest of the team, we are certain to get him." He placed his cheek on the top of her head and smiled down at the two pairs of unfocused blue eyes. "I'm not letting anyone lay a hand on our family. Are you?"

"No."

"Right then, he doesn't have a chance." He smiled, kissing her softly.

"Tony?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I do not have to worry about any of your exes turning up, do I?" She grinned, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she looked up at him.

"I don't think we'll have a problem with that. Especially since none of the women I have dated, prior to you, have ever been killers. Or, well, there was this one, but it was for a case, and I was undercover…" He blathered on as she chuckled, twisting so she was facing the same way as him and tucking her head under his chin.

* * *

"Wha'dya got, Abs?"

"Um, like 30 minutes from 30 security cameras throughout the hospital. That's, like, 900 minutes. Or like, 15 hours of footage." She yawned. I'm running a facial recognition software through it, scanning three cameras at once, at double the speed. Only problem is, the only picture we have of Malachi to compare to was the one Ziva gave us from when they were undercover together, since we want to keep this as quiet as possible." She picked up the album Ziva had directed her to, in a box in the attic of her and Tony's house, and flicked through the pages until she landed on the right one, slipping a polaroid out and showing it to him. "She was so young."

"Nineteen." He nodded, taking the photo and smiling slightly. Her eyes were brighter than he had seen them, before the twins, at least. They had been close to that when she had first turned up, but after Ari they had dimmed slightly, as if every time she lost somebody her eyes darkened just that little bit more. He could only imagine how bright her eyes had been when she was a child, before she had seen friends killed and sisters blown up, before she had lost her mother and killed other's fathers. "She still is young."

"But the difference is she actually seems young there." Abby pointed to the slight blush, the quiet smile. "I forget that she's younger than all of us. Younger than Palmer, even." She sighed. "I just think it's sad."

"She's had a different life to us, Abs. Seen things even Ducky hasn't seen. This is the last thing she needs." He tapped Malachi's face in the image.

"I'm doing my best, Gibbs."

"I know." He pecked her cheek and gave her a Caf-Pow! before walking out, only to turn back and place the picture on top of the album. "It's a good picture of her."

"Yeah. Shame about the company." She grumbled to his retreating form.


	57. Chapter LVII

**I did this when I was supposed to be working, but I was fed up of work. I did not know how to finish it, so I left it where it was. I do not like it that much.**

 **I am really thirsty.**

LVII. In Three Words I Can Sum Up Everything I've Learnt About Life: It Goes On.

He was uncertain what it was exactly that had woken him, but he was certain it had something to do with his wife. He turned his head towards the other hospital bed to see her hunched over the small table, her back to him, the dim light from the corridor haloed around her, producing an angelic aura. "What you doing?" His sleep-laden voice croaked out.

She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled softly. "Did I wake you?"

"No. Are you okay?"

"Fine." She went back to what she was doing, turning away from him and ignoring his original question.

Curiosity piqued and irritated that he had not been answered, he stumbled out of bed as gracefully as he could and sat down heavily next to her. She kept herself focused on the job in her hand, though leant into his side slightly, letting a small smile touch her lips as his hand came to rest on her thigh. He watched as she wrote, her neat, cursive script covering the heavy paper, black ink flowing smoothly over the cream surface. And an envelope, already named, sat propped up against the water jug.

 _Adabelle Antonia David-DiNozzo_

"Don't leave." His voice was pleading, desperate. "They need you, Elsie and Mina need you, Abby, McGee, Ducky, Gibbs, they all need you. I need you. Please?"

"I am not leaving, Tony."

"You're just saying that, aren't you? I've seen 'The Sound of Music' too, you know. I know that you writing a letter is not a good sign. I know it means you're leaving." He grew panicked.

She placed a hand on his arm, calming him down. "I am not leaving. I am writing letters for when I do not come home." She cast her eyes down, curling in on herself slightly. He was silent, speechless as she folded the paper in half and slipped it into a matching envelope, carefully writing Ada's full name on the front. Two more envelopes sat empty, along with a pile of expensive paper. "For Elsie and Mina. She noticed his gaze, fixed to the untouched stationery.

"Don't I get one?" There was a puzzled emptiness to his eyes.

"Yours has been written for a long time." She murmured sadly, taking his hand in her own, locking their fingers together. "What with everything going on, I thought it pertinent, just in case…" She did not need to say anymore, they both knew where she was headed, and neither needed it vocalised for the threat to be very real.

"You're an amazing Ima, and an even more amazing woman. You know that?" He pressed his lips to her temple, wrapping his right arm around her.

"Would you…? I mean…it is up to you, but…"

"Of course I'd write letters to them. All of them. But I might need to leave it until my arm is functioning properly. However, I disagree with you. We're not going to need them. Not for a long time." He smiled when she leant into him further. "Sleep now, write the rest tomorrow. Nothing's going to happen tonight."

She nodded, looking up to him. "Hold me?"

"Always."

* * *

A polite knock sounded on the door and Ducky poked his head through. "Good morning, Ducky." Ziva looked up from Ichabod.

"Sorry, my dear, I did not know that I would be interrupting." He lowered his eyes.

"It is fine. Ichabod is nearly done." She smiled at the nursing child. She sat between Tony's legs, leaning back against his chest as he pressed kisses to her bare shoulder, his hands sat on her stomach.

"Ada's still taking expressed milk." Tony piped up, beaming at the knowledge he had of his children. "But Ichabod's doing great with the whole breastfeeding thing, or so the nurse says."

"I think he is going to be like his father." Ziva smirked. "He already eats more than you."

"Ha. Unheard of. Nobody can eat more than the great Anthony DiNozzo."

"Well, your son can." She rolled her eyes. "Are you done, my little man? Yes?" She smiled, stroking the infant's soft cheek with a feather-light touch.

"Both Adabelle and Ichabod's stomach sizes are increasing rapidly at the moment, as they are themselves." Ducky said as he walked fully into the room. "How is everyone doing?"

"Good, thank you, Ducky. Has there been any more progress with Malachi?" Ziva stared at him, her eyes childlike and hopeful, preying that Gibbs had caught the man.

"Abby identified him leaving the hospital yesterday five minutes after you called Gibbs, which gave him enough time to change into day-to-day clothes and get down to the front lobby." Ducky said.

"So the guy just walked through the front door? Takes balls." Tony muttered. "Why didn't security get him before he came and bothered us?"

"Well, this is a hospital, Anthony, they tend not to run full background checks on every person walking in and out of the front door. It would be too time consuming."

"Well, they could at least scan irises or fingerprints or something." He grumbled as he played with Ichabod's hand, pulling faces at the little boy.

"I believe that is called invasion of privacy, my dear boy." Ducky chuckled.

"I had to have my fingerprints taken the second time I entered America." Ziva said. "I do not see why it is not the same."

"Because that is a matter of national security, a hospital is not."

"Maybe it should be." Ziva shrugged.

"Hey, why didn't you have your fingerprints taken the _first_ time you entered America?" Tony asked, puzzled.

"I was working as a control officer, I was not known to be in the country."

"Right…I don't think I'm gonna ask any more questions."

"Yes, else I might just have to kill you. I cannot have anyone just going around splashing all of my secrets."

"Spilling."

"Whatever. I simply cannot have it." She said, making Ducky chuckle.

Tony was quiet for a rare moment before his brow furrowed and he looked down at his wife. "You are kidding, aren't you?" She simply smirked and gave him a wink.

* * *

"So, um, hi." Tony moved back from where he had sat the camera, smiling as he perched on the edge of the bed. "Your Ima's signing discharge forms at the moment, so we have a minute. I mean, when you're watching this she won't be, but she is now, so, yeah…" He swallowed, trying to remove the thickness from his voice. "If you're watching this, Ichabod, you're probably gonna be feeling alone, or disappointed, or upset, or angry, but that's okay, 'cause that's natural. Your Ima's written letters, if she's not coming home too, but I hope she is, because whatever she tells you, she deserves life so much more than I do.

"I don't, uh, I don't know how much you know about us, me and your Ima, but I promise, whatever happens, whatever anyone says, everything we have ever done was all to make the world a better place. How well we achieved that, I don't know, but I want to make sure you know that all we've done is for the good, for a better place for you and your sister, and Elsie and Mina.

"I don't know when you'll be watching this, whether it's two years from now, five, eighteen, but know that we love you, and we always will. I hope your Ima's still there with you, and if she is, tell her I love her. You're gonna be the man of the house, now, and you need to remind her every day that she is worth the love that you are going to give her. Please? She'll stop believing it otherwise, and she deserves so much more than that, as you do, too. Y'know, I've known you and your sister less than two weeks, and you're already the most precious things in the world to me. I never thought that it was possible to love so much until I met your Ima. And then, two weeks ago, you proved me wrong again.

"If…if you are watching this, it means that I won't be coming home. It means something happened at work, something went wrong. I severely hope that you never do have to watch this, but I know that there is always going to be a chance that you will have to. What ever that is, your Grandpa Gibbs will never let it happen again. And, if neither of us are coming home, then you'll have to trust Auntie Abby and Uncle McGee and Grandpa Gibbs and Grandpa Ducky and Grandma Jenny. They all love you just as much as me and Ima do.

"You'll never be alone. If I want you to remember anything, it is that you are never alone, you will always be loved by us, whatever happens, wherever we are, our love is unconditional. Promise me you'll never let anyone tell you any different." He wiped an errant tear, turning away from the lens and sniffing before looking back. "I love you, okay? Just, be the best that you can be, I'll always be proud of you." He gave one final weak smile before reaching over and shutting the video off, putting the camera into the bag that McGee had brought earlier that morning at his request. He had already made the video message for Ada.

* * *

Tony was just wiping his eyes when Ziva walked back through. "Tony, are you okay?"

"Fine, yeah." He sniffed. "Just, y'know, I made video messages for them, 'cause I can't write. It's just depressing, thinking about it all."

"I know." It was something she was finally grasping, how sad it was making plans for when they died. For her, it had always been a reality. One day the bad guys would win, it was inevitable. She had never believed that she would survive long enough to see her twenty-fifth birthday, let alone marry the man she loved, have children. But the longer she lived, the more times she outran death, the closer he would get the next. For every day she lived, she was a day closer to dying, and the probability of her death being just around the corner grew with every near miss, every narrow escape, every minute she stayed alive. Humans are not, nor have they ever been, invisible. She knew that better than most. She had seen family and friends lost, enemies felled, innocents slaughtered. And still it went on. Every day, there was one more horror, one more atrocity for them to deal with. It never got easier, the pain never dulled, and the day it did would be the day she lost her humanity, for even if it is the enemy, the loss of any life is a tragedy.

"Come here." He extended his arms and she walked into them, burying her face into his chest. "So, is that Ichabod discharged?"

"Mmhm. You just need to sign your papers, and then all we are waiting for is Ada." She murmured, her voice muffled by his good shoulder.

"Well, the doctor said it should only be another week if she progresses as she has been. She's doing really well."

"I know…Tony, can I ask you something?"

"Anything. Although I might not be able to answer."

"Do you think it is my fault?"

"What?"

"Ada's hearing. The fact that they are premature. Is it my fault?" Her voice was tearful as she looked up at him.

"No, Ziva. Of course it is not. You had no way of controlling it, did you?" He drew circles on the small of her back with his right hand. "There was nothing you could have done, and I don't want to hear you saying otherwise."

 **Is Tony right-handed or left-handed? I always thought he was left-handed, but I might be wrong.**

 **I might write the letters and upload them separately, but then I might not, too.**


	58. Chapter LVIII

**Everything seems to be slipping away from me and I am too tired to try and stop it.**

LVIII. I have Not Failed. I've Just Found 10,000 Ways That Won't Work.

"GibbsGibbsGibbsGibbsGibbsGibbsGibbs!" Abby flung herself into Gibbs' arms as he ambled into her lab.

"Whoa, Abs. Calm down."

"I've got it, Gibbs. I know what car he's driving!" She beamed, pulling him over to her computer. "So, I didn't think he'd be stupid enough to park whatever car he's driving in the hospital car park, and he wasn't. I checked all of the car parks in the local area with CCTV, and found this." She pointed to the screen, a figure walking over to a car and getting in.

"Abs…?"

"Okay, so we can't see his face, but…" She clicked a few buttons. "Like we did with the security footage a few years back, we take the reflection and invert it, this time from the window on the drivers side door. Et voila! We have a face. Now, he knew what he was doing when he left the hospital, avoided all cameras but the main one at the front door, which would have been impossible to miss. I mean, the only way he could have missed it would be if he had climbed through the window, which would raise some eyebrows. The camera in this parking lot was hidden, there were no signs, no way of telling that the camera was even there without extensive research which would have flagged him up. But it's the only place without visible cameras within a reasonable distance of the hospital, so he used it. Matched the face with the one in the photo and the one leaving the hospital. I gave McGee the description and number plate so he could put out a BOLO."

"Where'd he get the car?"

"Rental place. Using a fake ID, under the name Yitzhak Haddad, he entered America and rented a black Mercedes S-Class Coupé. I don't know where he's staying, I tried to follow traffic cameras, but lost him. Sorry, Gibbs…I tried…"

"It's fine, Abby. You've done good. McGee will get something on the BOLO." He kissed her cheek and handed a Caf-Pow! over.

"Do you…do you know how they're doing?"

"They're getting through. Ziva signed Ichabod's discharge forms yesterday. Still living in the hospital room, though."

"They're not going to leave until Ada's allowed to leave." Abby nodded. "Have you been to see them?" He nodded and grunted in the affirmative. "Gibbs?"

"Yeah. They were sleeping." He shrugged and walked out, leaving Abby to shake her head.

* * *

"Shh, shh. No crying now. Let's leave Ima to sleep." Tony grimaced as he picked his son up, his shoulder still causing him grief. He quickly ducked out of the room – giving a nod to the agent guarding them – so as not to wake the woman sleeping in it. Ziva had been up half of the night with Adabelle, who had simply not wanted to be left alone away from her mother. Now that both Ada and Ziva were finally sleeping, he did not want to risk anything waking either of them up, even if he knew that Ichabod's crying would not disturb the younger of his two sleeping girls. It was about 0700hrs, and the corridors of the hospital were already buzzing with a lively hum of activity as doctors, nurses and orderlies went around on their daily jobs, and patients and family members wandered around, some lost, some tired, some scared, some sad, some relived. "Now, you can't be hungry again, 'cause you just had some of that yummy milk that your Ima gives you, and you can't need changing, because I literally just changed you, so what's all the fuss about, Mister?" Ichabod stared up at the source of the voice, his wide blue eyes doing their utmost to focus on his father, as his wails started to calm down. "Did you just want someone to talk to? Did you get bored of the four walls of our room? I did too." He wrinkled his nose and pulled a face. "But look, this place is more exciting." He adjusted the child slightly so he could see the boats painted on the walls of the corridor, despite the fact that his eyesight was still not strong enough to see the images. "Look at all those pretty colours. Y'know, I go on boats a lot, and so does your Ima. Grandpa Gibbs builds boats. Promise me one thing, Bod. Promise me that if you do ever start building boats, you'll always finish them. Never burn any of them. I think your Ima might make you promise that you'll never build a boat in the first place, but I don't think Grandpa Gibbs will give you a choice." Tony smirked at his son's wide eyes and serious expression, starting to move on down the corridor. He grinned at the nurse sat at the ward desk. "Morning Cathy."

"Agent DiNozzo, you should be in bed." She admonished, not without a small smile as she stood up and looked at the tiny boy in his arms. "He's doing well. Just be careful. We don't want him catching any nasty bugs – he's still very susceptible."

"I know. He was bored of our room. Too much like his mother. Get's fidgety when he's in the same place for too long, you know." He grinned again. "She thinks it makes her a bigger target. She's right, you know. And, I mean, the guy trying to kill me already knows which room I'm in, so it might be a good idea to move us to a different room. One with a bigger bed, maybe, and a sea view. Ooh, and a bathtub would be nice, a clawed tub, not one of those hideous things in the pokey little en suite in our room."

"This isn't a hotel, Agent DiNozzo." She laughed, shaking her head. "It is a good job I know you are joking."

"Wait, you thought I was joking? Hear that, Bod? Cathy thought I was joking. We weren't, were we Mister? No, we weren't."

"Bod? I do believe Agent David is going to flip out as soon as she hears you call him that." She sniggered as his face fell.

"Can you keep it a secret? How 'bout you, Bod? Think you can keep your nickname a secret?" He cooed slightly and Tony chuckled. "Sure you can. Don't know if I'll be able to though."

"We'll see what we can do about moving you into another room, but I simply don't think it is possible, Agent DiNozzo."

"Tony, please." He flashed a grin and the short, plump nurse rolled her eyes.

"Well, Tony, we shall see what we can do, but don't get your hopes up. We're very busy at the moment."

"Cathy, when d'you think we can all go home?" He whined.

She chuckled and shook her head, a sympathetic look passing her face. "That's up to when the doctors think Adabelle is ready to go home. You'll have to talk to them." She watched as he sighed and his shoulders slumped.

"I want to take my wife and children home, Cathy."

"I know you do." She smiled kindly watching as he nodded solemnly before walking back to the hospital room he and his family had been living in, talking to his son on the way back.

 **So, you know what I am really excited about? My 50th NCIS fiction! I now have 1 paragraph to write in the last chapter, two chapters to finish and three chapters to start. That is exciting. There is very little left to do now, really. That does of course not really mean anything, because it could take me anywhere from two weeks to eight months and up to write that. But it is getting there.**


	59. Chapter LIX

**I spent the day with a hall full of children ages 2 weeks to about four years old today for a fundraising thing for the paediatrics ward at the local hospital. They were all so adorable.**

 **And, look at this, something happy! Can you believe it? No, neither can I. I am running on about three hours sleep and very little food, I have a cold, and I am the happiest I have been in a long time. It might have something to do with the fact that I am listening to the Evita soundtrack and having a nice evening of being curled up in thermal pyjamas and duvets.**

LIX. For Every Minute You Are Angry, You Lose Sixty Seconds Of Happiness

Laughter erupted from room number 379 as Gibbs walked down the sterile corridor and he stopped, allowing himself to smile a little at the sounds he had missed hearing around the Navy Yard, or anywhere really. The team had been very thin on laughs lately. The agent stood outside the room caught Gibbs' eye and craned his neck to look through the glass. "Been like that all morning. Don't seem to stop laughing today."

"Everything else been quiet?"

"Silent. Only visitors over the past two days have been trusted doctors and nurses."

They had been having someone from their dysfunctional family visit every day when possible in the two months that Tony and Ziva had been under 'hospital arrest' as the senior field agent had dubbed their stay, until the week before when Abby found a sing orange daylily on the steps up to their brownstone. Ziva had paled when shown, shutting everyone but her children out for the rest of the day, long past visiting hours, after the sun had set and once the twins were fast asleep. She had curled up by Tony's side, burying her face into his shoulder and mumbling something about Malachi buying her orange daylilies when they were undercover together. When Tony phoned the next morning to explain, daily visits had gone out the window, everyone busy searching the flower for clues and tracing every daylily in DC. As of yet, nobody had made any progress, other than a few reasonably common fungal spores that Abby had found, with Jimmy and Ducky continuing to pour over the body of the hit man that failed. Gibbs nodded to the agent and stepped into the room, smiling at the family crowded onto one of the singles. Tony was propped up against the plump pillows, holding Ada with the utmost care and grinning all the while, as Ziva sat cross-legged facing him from the foot of the bed, with Ichabod lying on his back between them, surrounded by pillows. Doctor Wilson, the audiologist, stood by Tony, his old face crinkled into a smile at something Ziva had said, or Tony had done, or a face pulled by one of the infants. Whatever it was that had caused the warm aura of happiness in the small room that had become home to the family over the past months, Gibbs decided that he was perfectly happy not to know, so long as the joy lasted and the smiles did not fade.

Tony, sensing eyes on them, looked up. "Hey, Boss."

"DiNozzo. Mrs DiNozzo. Little DiNozzos." Gibbs nodded. "Doc."

"Have you found him?" Ziva's smile faltered slightly as he walked over to stand beside her, shaking his head slightly.

"But we will."

"You have been saying that for two months."

"And I will say it for the rest of my life if I have to, but I won't because we're gonna find him. McGee's traces are getting closer every day, and Abby's narrowing down the places that the fungus things are found, and the whole agency is working on it. Heck, the whole country has law enforcement all the way to the top of the top working on this case. We're getting closer every day." He took a breath, pausing after such a long speech and there was a silence that settled over the room, broken only by Ichabod's gurgles and coos.

"On a brighter note, Doctor Wilson's signing off on Ada's paperwork. We just need the paediatrician to sign off now and we're home free!" Tony grinned. "I can't wait to get out of this place. No offence, Doc, but I really think that it could do with some cheering up here. I mean, even Elsie's beautiful drawings are struggling under the immense pressure of such a task."

"Doctor Jeffries will be along shortly to give her a check up." Doctor Wilson nodded, smiling gently as he made his way to the door. "I'll leave you to it."

"That guy cracks me up. He tells stories to rival Ducky's."

"I dread to think what would happen if they were to be locked in a room together." Ziva chuckled, a hint of the joviality of moments beforehand returning.

"Do you think they're related?"

* * *

"Pssst. Gibbs." Abby hissed from where she was stood in the entrance to the parking structure of the hospital. "Over here."

"I can see you, Abs. You don't need to say 'over here'." He said, walking towards her. She had a large, thin cardboard box behind her back. "What is it?"

"Well, I went round to Tony and Ziva's to pick up their mail and feed Kate, and there was a slip there from the photographers saying that their wedding photo's were all ready for collection. I thought I would go and pick them up for them, and then you could hang it in their living room for them. Ziva told me when they chose them that Tony was going to hand it above their fireplace, but since he's not gonna be doing much of anything physical for a while, I thought maybe you could…" She shrugged and grinned, trailing off. "As a surprise, I mean. So when they get home, the album with them all in will be waiting on the coffee table and the big photo will be hanging up and it will save them a job. Please?"

Gibbs sighed, knowing that no matter how hard he tried, the answer would always be yes to Abby. Yes to Ziva, too, on most things, although he was certain some of her more questionable interrogation techniques would receive a no. "Well, since the Doc's thinking of discharging Ada later today, I better get on with it then."

"Yay! I knew you would say- wait, did you say Ada's being discharged today?!" Abby squealed, using all of her – admittedly meagre – self control to not let go of the photo.

"Possibly. Don't get your hopes up." He cautioned, yet he could not keep the hope from his own voice. "However, you might wanna clean the house up a bit – she's still gonna be susceptible to…stuff." He shrugged. "Sickness and bugs and stuff."

"Anything, Gibbs. Anything, I'll vacuum and I'll dust and I'll make all the beds and..."

"Good. Means you can get to work immediately." He pressed a kiss to her cheek.

* * *

"Abs!" Gibbs called and the sound of the vacuum cleaner halted and heavy footfalls on the stairs indicated the speed at which she was hurtling towards him. He turned to the door when she clattered through, out of breath. "They straight?"

"They're gorgeous." She gasped. And they were, the three photos in the triptych. There had been no formal photographs taken, merely candids and informal groups of people, holding glasses and slices of cake, after Ziva's insistence that she wanted people to look happy, not like statues. The first of the photos was one of white icing on Ziva's nose as she liberally applied a dollop of the sticky substance to Tony's cheek with her thumb, eyes full of laughter, surrounded by the team. The second of the images depicted only them in a dark room, foreheads pressed together, eyes shut, gently swaying to music – Abby assumed it had been taken when she and McGee had called it a night, leaving the couple alone. The final canvas had her and Tony in a secluded corner, one of her hands on his cheek and one playing with the short hair at the back of his head, one of his hands buried in her loose curls of hair and the hand closest to the camera splayed on her bump, their lips touching in a soft, gentle, intimate kiss.

"But are they straight?"

"Um…I think the end one needs shifting over slightly." Gibbs nodded and stood back again. "That's better. They're going to love it." She reached for the album that Gibbs had placed on the coffee table.

"Uh-uh, Abs. They should see it first." She looked about to protest when he shook his head. "No, Abs. Not this time. We got to see the canvases first, it is only fair. They are their wedding photos." He hand shrank back towards her and she nodded. "How's the cleaning going?"

"I've changed all of the bed sheets and vacuumed all of the carpets, and mopped the hardwoods and dusted all of the surfaces and removed any cobwebs." She grinned. "I think I'm all done." She beamed.

"They'll need the fridge stocking."

"Oh, right. Restock the fridge, then I'm done." He smiled as she ran out, clumsily pulling her platforms on and grabbing her coffin backpack, shutting the door rather heavily behind her.

* * *

"Thank you, Gibbs." Ziva smiled, standing at the threshold of the townhouse with her husband, Ichabod cradled in her arms, Ada in his.

"Any time." He nodded, kissing her forehead before kissing Ichabod, and then Ada's, foreheads too.

"What? No kiss for me, Boss?" Tony grinned.

"You want one, DiNozzo?"

"Nah, I'm good, thanks."

"Your loss." The older man smirked. "Go on. Go get some rest. The others will be round tomorrow, Abby wants to throw you a welcome home party."

"Well, we'll be waiting." Gibbs gave one final nod before turning on his heels and jogging down the brick steps to the path and over to the Charger he had borrowed from the NCIS parking garage. Ziva leant into Tony's side as they watched Gibbs drive off at a much faster speed than he had driven with the family in the car. He pressed his lips to the crown of her head as she closed the door with her foot.

"Welcome home, Babies." She whispered quietly as they both turned around and faced the hallway that they had not stood in since the morning before Tony was shot. Her son stared up at her, wide eyed in his pale blue babygrow and hat. Adabelle continued to sleep peacefully in Tony's arms, as she had since they had placed her in the car seat in the back of the car. "First things first, I think it is bath time, yes?"

"I think that is a very good plan." Tony grinned. "And then, once you're asleep, it's Ima and Daddy's bath time."

Ziva rolled her eyes and shook her head as they started heading upstairs. "Oh, you think so, do you?" She smirked.

"I do." He looked up at her innocently.

"Well, I think Daddy's painkillers might be getting to him." She struggled to keep the smirk out of her voice and was glad that she was walking in front of him so he could not see the grin that had spread across her face as she spoke to the child in her arms.

* * *

Ada's clear blue eyes opened with a start as Tony blew a raspberry on her belly, making her parents laugh as she wriggled. They were sat on the heated tile floor of the en suite, the small yellow baby bathtub in front of them and the twins wrapped in fluffy towels. "Tony, do you have your work camera?"

"It's in my bag. I'll go get it." He pecked her lips quickly before standing up and dashing out of the room, running back a moment later clutching the Nikon in his good hand. He sat back down beside her, turning the camera on and pointing it towards her as she pulled a face at their little boy. "We're gonna need to get a photo album for all the photos of you two. We are." He nodded as Ziva moved Ichabod so he was lying next to his sister. Tony attracted the attention of the boy my making funny noises whilst Ziva tapped their daughter's nose. He grinned at the image of the two fluffy bundles, one yellow and one mint green.

"We can ask Abby to print them tomorrow." Ziva said. "But now, it is time to get you two dressed. Shall we get you two dressed now? Yes?" They each took one child, Tony also slinging the camera over his good shoulder, and carried them through to the bedroom. They placed them in the centre of the bed and Ziva crawled over to sit with them as Tony took the threw her the slightly smaller of the two tiny vests and the white babygrow with the pastel rainbow stars, as well as a nappy, whilst he took the larger of the two vests and the blue babygrow with anchors and started dressing the larger of the two twins.

Ziva ran her index finger along her baby girl's cheek, smiling as the infant turned her face towards it, her eyes fluttering shut as she yawned. "Someone's sleepy." Tony said. "Bedtime?"

"I think so." Ziva nodded, carefully lifting Ada up, avoiding jostling her. "I love you, Baby." Her kiss was like a butterfly on the infant's cheek as she placed her in the bassinette. Tony mimicked the action in the bassinette next to her and they swapped over, each wishing their children good nights. It was a routine that they had established whilst in the hospital, and they saw no need to change it. "You may have your shower whilst I put the laundry on."

"You sure? I mean, I can do the laundry if you want."

"Do you know how to-"

"Of course I know how to do the washing, Ziva. I might be an idiot, but even an idiot can use the laundry."

"If you had not so rudely interrupted, you would know that I was going to ask if you knew how to turn the washer onto silent mode."

He paused, his mouth opening and closing silently as he tried to formulate an answer. "It has a silent mode?"

"And that is precisely why I shall do the laundry whilst you have your shower." She grinned, pressing her lips to his. As they kissed slowly, it felt like all of her energy and tension seeped out of her and she relaxed into his body, suddenly regretting suggesting doing the laundry and not wanting to leave his arms. She broke her lips away and sighed, nuzzling her face into his neck. "You smell of hospital."

"So do you." He chuckled, remorsefully unwinding her arms from his neck and slowly tugging his t-shirt over his head. She stood back, watching, and approving eye casting down his body. "Your turn." She looked down and rolled her eyes, yet obliging as she pulled her t-shirt off, discarding it in the pile on the ground between them. He unashamedly stared at her, simple white bra obstructing his full view.

As if reading his mind, she smirked. "Uh-uh. I removed my t-shirt, it is your turn now."

"What? But that's not fair, you have more clothes than me. Aw, c'mon Ziva. It's been so long since I've seen your body." He wined, keeping his voice low so as not to wake the children. She shook her head stubbornly and crossed her arms over his chest, making him whimper pathetically. He huffed and pushed his jogging bottoms to the ground.

She raised her eyebrows. "Commando, Tony?"

"I wish I'd never started this game now."

"I am certain." She chuckled, but removed her cargo pants.

As she stooped to pick up their dirty clothing he groaned. "You're not gonna remove your underwear, are you?" His pout was a sight to be seen and she could not help but snigger. She shook her head with a grin and walked over to the bathroom, picking up the twin's clothes that they had come home from the hospital in before picking the towels up from the bed as well, placing them in the laundry basket that sat by the door. Feeling her husband's eyes on her she paused at the doorway of the bedroom and placed the basket back on the floor, turning to face him. She unclasped her bra and shimmied out of her panties, almost bursting out with laughter at Tony's face. "Ziva." He growled as she bent to pick them up and place them in the hamper, which she then positioned on her hip and sauntered out of the bedroom, stark naked. He let out a shaky breath and ran a hand over his face. "Your Ima drives me crazy, you know that…"

 **I think that the more I write, the worse the writing gets…**

 **I spent the afternoon with my dad going through all of the old photos of my brother and I when we were babies the other day, trying to find a specific one of me holding my brother when he was about two hours old. We did not find it, but there are still three boxes to go through (the joys of having a photographer as a parent). That is where the first half of the paragraph at the end came from. Just looking at old pictures.**


	60. Chapter LX

**I have been doing a little bit of maths, and I worked out that this gets, on average, 4.5 reviews per chapter, whilst 24 gets 6.8. Brown on Green averaged at 12 reviews per chapter and Her Return averaged at 5.4. Which suggests that the length of time for which I have been writing has affected my ability in no way, if we are merely using number of reviews as our data.**

 **Anyway, it is quite literally blowing a gale outside – I would tell you the wind speed if the wind had not broken the weathervane on the roof…**

LX. I Never Realise How Much I Like Being At Home Unless I've Been Somewhere Really Different For A While.

Tony cringed as the mattress depressed with his weight and he held still for a moment, checking that he had not disturbed his wife. She continued to slumber, hair a mess on her pillow and left hand clasped in a fist on his pillow as she lay on her right side. He sank slightly further onto the bed and sat cross-legged, pointing his camcorder at her peaceful face and zooming in slightly. "This is your Ima. She's a very, very special woman." He whispered, marvelling at how the thought had not occurred to him earlier that he should be documenting his life with the ones he loved. He studied her face, the exotic features older than when he had first seen them, but no less enchanting. Her golden skin shone against the crisp white of the covers, the warm sunlight streaming through the curtains haloing her face and convincing him that she was an angel. Her eyes fluttered open as the light intensity increased and she stared lazily at her husband and the lens of the video camera until the glass eye registered with her.

"What are you doing, Tony?"

"Videoing. Say hi to the camera, Ziva." He grinned his best grin, one that could usually permeate her outer walls and regulations, particularly in the few moments between sleep and wake. However, her glower suggested that this time he would not win as she reached out to block the camera's view of her. "I think Ima's a little bit grumpy. Maybe we should let her sleep some more."

"Maybe you should stop filming me, DiNozzo." She mumbled, burying her head into the pillow.

"Why? You're beautiful." He stated, an innocent smile on his face.

"I am not beautiful and I do not like being filmed."

"You _are_ beautiful, and why?"

She sighed and stared at him, his determination and the unwavering camera in his hand. "Because you never know who will see it. You never know who will use it against you."

"Nobody is going to use this against you, Ziva. Trust me."

"Yes, because that is exactly why we have an agent positioned in our garden, one down the street and another on the opposite side of the street?"

"They are there to make certain that nobody can get to us. If nobody can get to us, then you have no need to worry about who will get hold of the video to use it against us." He placed the camcorder down on the bedside table and tilted her chin towards him. "We're safe. You're safe." He dropped a soft lingering kiss to her lips, grinning as she rolled him over and straddled his torso, one of the straps of her black camisole slipping down her arm. He used the hand that he had moved to her back to pull her down, pressing his lips to her shoulder before replacing the strap to its original position. She smiled, leaning her forehead on his and nuzzling their noses together, laying her forearms on his pillow, either side of his head, and playing with his hair. "We're safe, okay? I promise."

She swallowed and nodded, letting a grin flash across her face as she sat up and grabbed the video camera, pointing it at him. "I still do not understand why you want to video everything."

"Because I want us to be able to remember this moment, and every moment to come, when we are old and grey and losing our memories." He watched as her brow creased slightly before a wide smile spread across her lips. "What?"

"I want to grow old and grey and lose my memory."

Tony laughed, shaking his head. "You've got goals, Ziva DiNozzo." He muttered sarcastically.

"I never believed I would ever marry, or have children, Tony. To die of old age would be a dream."

His smile faded and he took her empty hand, rubbing circles on her palm with his thumb. "Ziva, I…I promise that I will do my utmost to allow for you to die of old age." He turned her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

"You do not need to do that, Tony."

"I do. You're my wife and we're gonna grow old together. I promise."

She smiled sadly, zooming the camera in on his face. "You are promising the impossible again."

"It's not impossible." He shook his head and grinned. "We'll make it." She touched her lips to his, placing the camcorder haphazardly on the bedside table. A piercing cry broke their concentration on one another's faces and their heads both whipped up to stare at the bassinettes before Ziva slipped from where she sat, walking over to Adabelle and picking the baby girl up, returning to Tony and nodding for him to scoot over. "Hey, this is my side of the bed!"

"Move." He shook his head and she rolled her eyes, sitting down between his legs and leaning back into his torso.

"There was that so difficult? Although it might be slightly more comfortable if you stopped fidgeting." She turned her face so their noses brushed, her eyes alight and a grin spread across her lips. "You're evil, you know that?"

"I have been told so on occasion. I have also been told that you love me."

"Well, whomever your sources are, they are very reliable."

Ziva ran her index finger lightly along Ada's cheek, smiling as she leaned into the feather-soft pressure, seeking out her mother's finger. "Are you hungry, my love?"

"Yes."

"Well, _you_ know where the kitchen is, Tony. I was thinking more about our daughter, who does not."

"Yeah, well, I think I'm quite content to sit here and watch for now. But I am serious about being hungry." He took the camera, pointing it at the profile of his wife's face as she smiled down at their little girl when she latched on, starting to suckle. "She likes that. I don't blame her."

"Tony, you do want to keep all of your limbs, yes?"

"Uh-hu." He gulped, knowing that she was fully serious.

"Daddy is a freak." She cooed softly, playing with the chubby fist that was curled on her tanned skin.

"Creep. I am a creep. Not a freak. There's a difference."

"So you admit that you are a creep?"

"No, I never…okay, so I did say that, but I was correcting you, that, that doesn't count."

She snorted, knowing she had won.

* * *

"ZIVA!"

Tony leapt out of his skin when her hot breath brushed against the flesh of his neck. "Yes, Dear?"

"Christ! Do you have to do that?" He turned so their noses touched and his hands braced against the doorframe, leaning down slightly.

"Yes. You should be wearing your sling."

"Don't want to anymore. Gets in the way. Besides, the doc said I didn't have to once I felt I was healing."

"Yes but do you actually feel like you are healing, or is this just you saying you are so you can help out more?"

"I feel useless, Ziva." His shoulders slumped and he gave a pathetic shrug of his hands.

She pinched the bridge of her nose, knowing from past experience how he felt and knowing that he would probably just make it worse if she forced him into the sling. "What do you want?" To explain he simply moved out of her line of sight, showing the triptych of canvases. She grinned, revealing white teeth. "They are perfect."

"Just how you wanted them." He nodded, watching her face as she analysed each of them.

"How?"

"My guess is Gibbs. There's also this." He walked over to the coffee table, picking up the album and handing it over. She opened it to the first page, a picture of the smiling faces of her family, sat at the table at the head of the hall. Soft cooing sounded through the baby monitor sat on the piano. "Get them changed and bring them down here whilst we have breakfast?" Tony suggested. "Who cooks and who dresses?"

"Can you cook pancakes? There is mixture in the cupboard."

"Sure. Oh, did Gibbs say what time everyone is coming over?"

"About 1500hrs, I think." She pecked him on the lips before walking out, smiling to herself as she felt Tony's eyes on her back and lower.

* * *

Tony woke from where he lay on the plush carpet of the living room to the sound of his son crying in his ear. He blinked, opening his eyes to see his wife's face inches from his own, her soft curls spilling across the cream floor. He tilted his head back to see Ada sleeping peacefully on his sleeping wife's torso, taken back momentarily to when they were on protection detail with Elsie and Mina, seeing her lying asleep on the floor with Mina in the position that Ada now held. And then he remembered the crying and looked down to see Ichabod's red face as he wailed, his place identical to his sister's. He scrunched his face together momentarily before holding Bod to his chest so that he did not fall when he sat up. "Hey, what's wrong, huh? Shush, let's not wake Ima now. What's wrong?" He held the boy up and sniffed. "No, don't need changing. You were fed," he check his watch, "two hours ago. So what's the problem?" The doorbell rang and Tony checked his watch again. 1501hrs. He clambered up, careful not to drop his son, and walked to the front door, seeing Abby's beaming face in the peephole. He shifted Bod to one arm and pulled the door open.

"Did we wake him?" Abby asked immediately.

"Or does he just cry every time he see's your face." McGee grinned as Tony stuck his tongue out at him.

"You woke both of us up."

"Ziva let you have a lunchtime nap?" Jenny sniggered as Tony let the crowd in.

"I think she was the one who fell asleep first. And she still is sleeping, so if we could just keep it down slightly."

"Too late, DiNozzo." Gibbs said, nodding behind the younger man. Tony turned to see Ziva stood with Ada, who was stirring in her sleep, rubbing her face with a mittened hand and blinking slowly.

"She okay?"

"She woke up just as I woke up." Ziva shrugged, kissing Ada's forehead, before looking at her family gathered in the hallway. "It is good to see you all."

"It's good to see you too, my dear." Ducky smiled, walking over and kissing her cheek. "How are you feeling?"

"Good. Tired, but I doubt that will be changing any time soon. Come through, really, the living room is much more comfortable than the hallway." She waved them through, folding the blanket that lay crumpled on the couch with one hand and placing it on the floor. Everyone automatically started admiring Ichabod as Tony started exaggerating tales of their stay in hospital whilst Ziva continued to tidy one handed, Adabelle in her other arm. She was getting good at using her left hand to do things with.

"Ziva?"

The younger woman turned to face her frowning friend, smiling gently. "Abby? What is it?"

"Well, I was just wondering if I could…" She nodded to Ada and Ziva beamed proudly.

"Of course you can hold her." They moved to the sofa and she positioned Abby's arms into a cradle, carefully placing her child into the soft, tattooed cocoon.

"Hi there, little one. Hi…" Ziva felt her heart swell as she watched the woman whom she considered no less than a sister coo over her tiny baby, the child's clear blue eyes trying with all their might to focus on Abby's grinning face, laughing when Ada started blowing bubbles with her lips.

Tony's commentating voice broke through her thoughts and she looked up to see him with the camera pointed at Gibbs who was carefully holding Ichabod. "And here's Grandpa Gibbs with Bod. The next thing you know, Bod will be down in Gibbs' basement building boats, and that's not a comforting thought." He saw the smile slip from McGee's face and his skin pale as everybody else turned away, finding other things of interest and a deep sense of foreboding settled over him.

A whisper of breath in his ear had him jumping out of his skin and firm hands on his arms along with a firm body pressed to his back had him effectively frozen to the spot. "What did you just call our son?"

"Uh…Bud, as in Buddy. I called him Bud."

She chuckled and Tony felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, his heart rate increasing with the fear that the sadistic sound triggered. "Well, I must have misheard you then, because I could have sworn you called him Bod."

"You must've, then, mustn't you, because there is no reason why I should have called him Bod."

She moved her lips even closer to his ear by reaching up on tiptoes, compensating for the last inch by running her hand through his hair and tugging his head back. "I know when you lie to me, Tony."

He laughed. "When have I ever lied to you?"

"You want the whole list or just an exert." Her voice was now almost silent, merely a soft breath into his ear canal.

"There's a list?" He gulped as his throat tightened.

"Purely for blackmail purposes, you understand, but yes, I have a list. I have many lists, in fact, focused on you: what I know you like, what I know you dislike, where you are ticklish and what turns you on…" She drifted off, as the hand that was not holding his head back starting drawing feather-light patterns on his palm with her nails, something she knew drove him insane.

"Hm, is that something that all women do when they get married, or is it just Mossad?"

"I think I am unique in that respect."

"You're unique in many respects, Sweetcheeks. One of those being that you scare me more than Gibbs."

She laughed heartily, looking around to see that the living room had emptied and catching a glimpse of movement in the doorway to the kitchen. "Well, in that case it goes without saying that you will do as I say, yes?" She grinned.

"Yeah. Of course Honey." He said in a saccharine voice as her hand started running down his chest, inching lower and lower. "But, uh, we have company right now, and, uh, your hand is getting awful close to-" He stopped abruptly when she completely disappeared from behind him and he had to whip his head around to see her hips swaying as she walked into the kitchen. He sighed and let his body slump against the baby-grand, rubbing a hand over his face before following his wife.

"…did we miss?"

"Oh, only bets on how long until baby DiNozzo number three's on its way." McGee shrugged and Abby sniggered at the blushes of everybody else in the room. Apparently McGee had not been lying.

"Well, I think we can say for now that it will not be happening for a long time."

"A very, very long time." Ziva agreed with Tony, walking over to him as he took a seat at the table and gasping when he pulled her down onto his lap. She wiggled unnecessarily with the rouse of getting comfortable and he groaned quietly.

"Don't tease, Zee-vah. It's. Not. Nice." He growled in her ear. She simple grinned and turned her head so she could quickly capture his lips before looking back at their friends. Jenny was now holding Ichabod as Ducky held Ada, angling her so she could see Abby's hands move in a slow string of signs. Gibbs was playing with Ichabod's foot in his calloused hand and McGee and Palmer were talking to one another at the breakfast bar, both content to watch the baby-stuff, as they put it, from afar. "Are you happy, Ziva?" Tony asked quietly, his chin resting on her shoulder as his hands played with the skin at her waist, underneath her t-shirt.

"Unbelievably so. You?"

He pressed his lips to her neck for a moment before turning back to look out at the kitchen and his family sitting in it. "Yeah. I am. I'm really happy."

* * *

"Ichabod, Sweetheart, you need to hush for me. You are going to wake your Daddy and Daddy needs to sleep." The child in her arms screamed harder and she closed her eyes, touching her forehead to his and inhaling his unique baby-smell. She ducked into the hallway outside their bedroom, slowly pacing along the landing above the stairs. "Sweetheart, what is wrong? Tell Ima please." She sighed, stroking his cheek. "You are not hungry, you do not need changing, what is the problem, Ichabod?" She pressed a kiss to his soft tufts of jet-black hair before pressing the back of two fingers to his forehead. "You do not have a fever, I do not know what is wrong. Do you just want some company?" She walked through to the nursery, closing the door behind her to create another barrier between Tony and the noise. "Hush now my little Bod. Your crying will wake the dead, and there are too many dead that we do not want to be woken." She sighed as she tried desperately to think of something to sing. In her search for something age appropriate and soft enough to lull her child into a slumber, her mind tumbled back to a flickering image of Tony singing to her, and with a little more probing she remembered standing behind the stairs with him, jealousy oozing from his pores like pheromones. And she remembered later, after everything, sitting in the bullpen alone searching Google for a film with Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin, trying to recall the name of the song he had sung. She flicked the little nightlight that projected stars on the walls on and hummed the first few bars, smiling as her son's wailing calmed to a softer whimpering. "Come with me,

my love,  
to the sea,  
the sea of love,

I wanna tell you,  
How much,  
I love you,

Do you remember,  
When we met,  
That's the day,  
I knew you were my pet,

I wanna tell you,  
How much,  
I love you,

Come with me,  
My love,  
To the sea,  
The sea of love,

I wanna tell you,  
How much,  
I love you," Ziva smiled as her little boy's eyelids drooped shut, her low, quite singing trailing off. "There, that was not so hard now, was it Bod?"

"That sounded more like the Cat Power version, as used in the film Juno, than the original, but I think it possibly works better as a lullaby like that." Tony's voice made her jump slightly and she had to check she had not woken her son before she turned to her husband.

"Sorry. I tried to keep the noise down, but…"

"It's fine, Ziva. You should have woken me."

"No, you are grouchy when you do not get a full eight hours of sleep." She smiled and shook her head, turning the nightlight off and walking over to him, tucking herself under his arm as they made their way back to the master bedroom, careful to avoid squeaky floorboards.

"I am never grouchy." He murmured quietly as she placed their child in his bassinette, dropping a kiss to the top of his head.

"Sleep now, my little Bod." Tony smirked, keeping his thoughts to himself as he pressed a kiss to Ichabod's forehead whilst Ziva checked on their daughter. Content that both children were asleep, they crawled back into bed, meeting in the middle and assuming their standard position of her head on his chest and letting their legs automatically entwine them together.

"Bod?" There was the soft expulsion of air as Ziva's fist came into contact with his stomach.

"Mention it to anyone and you will be sleeping on the couch for a month, understand? And there will be no sex for two months."

His audible gulp was answer enough to her and she grinned as she slipped off to sleep, knowing that they were both empty threats.

 **Does anyone else think that Tony and the Noise sounds like a really cool band name? – maybe they would be able to find a good song to sing as a lullaby. When I was a baby, my dad never sung lullaby lullabies, he used to sing whatever song would come into his head – I was sung a lot of Bowie and a lot Eagles tracks when I was younger, which explains my taste in music now. So I really know no lullabies, and then looking through my phone I could not decide on a song for Ziva to sing, so I plugged the phone into my speakers, closed my eyes and waited for a good song to come around on shuffle. The bit about Ziva struggling to come up with a song was actually my struggle to come up with a song, and my thoughts on the matter.**

 **I found a note yesterday that I left myself whilst writing chapter 1 that simply read 'camcorder'. I had intended for Tony to start wandering around with a camcorder and recording everything, starting in maybe chapter 5 or 6. And then the note got lost in amongst a pile of paperwork and I completely forgot about my intentions.**

 **You know, really, Ima should not be capitalised. Because in Hebrew there are no 'capitals', per se. If you write a letter the same way you type, it is sort of like a capital letter, but words are not capitalised. An aleph is an aleph, and looks the same when it is at the beginning of ima as it does when it is at the end. However, five characters do have final forms, which are sort of like capital letters for the ends of words, but they are there whenever you end a word with that letter, so not really. Ima is spelt aleph-mem-aleph, though. Aba is spelt aleph-bet-aleph. Fun fact.**


	61. Chapter LXI

**The return of the prewritten chapter. I forgot that I had this one written up. I really need to do something about Malachi. I am starting to hate him. Oh, I have just realised that I do not think I ever actually concluded the Jell-O case, did I? It seems the FBI are still grappling with that. Maybe we should check in on them sometime. Perhaps in the next chapter. I do not know. I do not really want to write anything at the moment. Or I do and I simply do not know what to write.**

LXI. Among The Things Billy Pilgrim Could Not Change Were The Past, Present And Future.

"Ziva?"

"Yes, Abby?" Ziva looked up at the Goth's tone. She wanted something, she could tell. It was Tony's first day back, albeit on desk-duty, and she had been bored at home, so she had brought the twins to the office. Tony had spent half the morning showing them off to people before Gibbs had grumbled something half-heartedly about getting on with some work.

"Well, I was just wondering…" She walked over and started playing with Adabelle's foot. Ziva just narrowed her eyes as she held Bod, uncertain of what it was her friend was trying to do.

"Have you asked her yet? Have you asked her?" McGee bounded in and grinned when he spotted Ziva in the lab.

"No, she has not asked me anything."

"Well, I was wondering… Halloween is coming up."

"In five months."

"It's less than half a year." Abby shrugged before continuing. "What I wanted to know was if I would be allowed to dress the twins for Halloween."

"Hey! I want to dress one of them!"

"Oh, come on, McGee! Halloween's my holiday!" Abby stomped her feet, the loud bang causing Ichabod to jump slightly in his mothers arms.

"There are two of them. You only need one!" He argued. "I have such a good idea. Please?" It was not Ziva who he was pleading with, but Abby.

"Fine. I guess you can dress one."

"No. Neither of you are dressing either of my children." Ziva interrupted the fight.

"Why do they want to dress our kids?" Tony waltzed in, Gibbs hot on his heels.

"Abby and McGee want to dress them for Halloween."

"Halloween's in five months, Abs. It's a bit early." Gibbs frowned.

"No, actually at Halloween."

"I don't see why not." Tony shrugged and both Abby and McGee's faces lit up. Ziva's face, however, did not seem so impressed. She carefully handed Ichabod to Gibbs and walked over to Tony, pinching his earlobe. Hard. "Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow!"

"You do not see why not?"

"No. I mean, I think it would be kinda…cute…" He whimpered. She squeezed harder for a second before releasing him. "Come on, Ziva. I think it would be fun."

"And where would they go in these costumes?"

"The NCIS Halloween party." Gibbs supplied. "Even I think it's a good idea, Ziva."

"Please, Ziva?" Abby looked at her with her best puppy-dog eyes. "I promise that you won't regret it."

Ziva pursed her lips. "No." She shook her head, taking Ichabod from Gibbs and placing him in his carrier, picking up Ada's and storming towards the elevator.

"I'll work on her." Tony winked before turning and following his wife.

"I get Bod."

"Wha…No fair!"

"But Timmy, I have a great idea!" Abby stomped her feet.

"So do I! Come on, Abs…please, I've got no idea how you dress a girl!"

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Hey, the pair of you! Why don't you wait for Ziva to say yes. Then, how about you enter the costume competition as two groups; the girls and the guys."

"Brilliant idea, O Greatness." Abby bowed down to him. "Now, what did you come down here to ask about?"

"Any progress?"

Abby sighed and looked at him, shaking her head. "He's disappeared again. It's like he's a ghost."

"Well, find me some ectoplasm, Abby. We need to get somewhere with this." He turned on his heel and left.

"Ziva's struggling with this, isn't she?"

"Well, wouldn't you be, McGee? I mean, her psycho ex is trying to kill her babies and her husband."

"And I thought you had a bad taste in men." He smiled.

"Hey! You were one of those men. And besides, if Ziva's taste in men were really that bad, she and Tony would not be together, would they?"

"Well…I would not say Tony's exactly a good choice. And I was excluding myself from your bad taste."

"You can't just exclude yourself, it doesn't work like that." Abby slurped at her Caf-Pow! innocently and shrugged, turning back to the monitor. "Ugh! I hate this guy, McGee! I really hate him!"

"We all do, Abs." He rubbed his eyes and sighed. "Come on. From the top."

* * *

"Why not?"

"Because, I do not want my children paraded around in some stupid costumes." She hissed at him.

He simply chuckled and shook his head. "Spoilsport. That's what Halloween's all about, Ziva. Come on, just let Abby and McGee have their fun, and then we can go back to dressing them like normal little people."

"You think calling me names is really going to convince me to let _Abby and McGee_ dress my children?"

"Wha…oh. Spoilsport? That just means that, y'know, you need to loosen up a bit."

"I would be fine with it, but you have seen how Abby dresses, what part of you really thinks that I want either of my children dressing like Abby? And McGee? He will put them in some costume from one of his computer games." She muttered to him quietly as they stood behind the stairs. Jenny and Gibbs were babysitting in her office, and Tony could see Ziva visibly getting antsy at not seeing her children for nearly thirty minutes.

"What's wrong with the way Abby dresses?" She raised her eyebrows at him and he nodded. "Fair point, but do you really think she would tattoo a baby?"

"Yes, Tony, I really do. I love Abby, she is like a sister, but I do not trust her to dress my children."

He nodded and sighed. "I can see where you're coming from, but I really don't see the harm in letting them dress the kids up for one night under our supervision. You never know, you might even enjoy yourself. Halloween is fun, and the NCIS party is always great. Besides, it will be a good way to show of our babies, and show everyone how proud you are of them." He tilted his head as she blushed slightly, turning her face away from his gaze. "And there's not a snowball's chance in hell that anybody could beat our kids in the costume party. I mean, they are the most adorable kids in existence, and if they are dressed up in cute little outfits, they are certain to win."

"I…I guess it can be no harm. So long as there is constant supervision."

"There will be, don't worry." He kissed her forehead. "Do you want to go and tell them the good news or shall I?"

"I…I think I might just go and check on how Jenny and Gibbs are doing."

"Ziva, they're fine. It's not the first time Gibbs has looked after a baby before."

"Yes, but has he ever looked after two at once?"

"I do not know, but he has Jenny there to help him. Come on. They are fine. You need to relax a little." He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her lips. She breathed slowly, leaning into his side. "Okay?"

"Okay."

"Now come on. Let's go tell the crazies that they get the task of finding costumes to make our kids cuter than they already are."


	62. Chapter LXII

**I have not been having a good couple of weeks, and I have been struggling to write anything, or even do anything, really, but I wrote this in my lunch break today before a meeting, so it is not as good as I could have made it, I think, but I do not think that I could make it any better at the moment.**

 **I really, really need you guys to stick with it after this chapter, because I am certainly not finished with this story yet.**

LXII. Love Does Not Begin And End The Way We Seem To Think It Does. Love Is A Battle, Love Is A War; Love Is A Growing Up.

 _Gibbs._

 _Do not hate me for this. I know he might, and I do not blame him, but I cannot have this continue anymore. I have to end this. I cannot continue to live in fear that my husband and children are in constant danger all because of mistakes I have made in my past. I am doing this for them. I am keeping them safe, and that is all that can be asked of a mother. It is my duty to keep my babies alive. I have failed this task once before, and I cannot live with the idea that I will fail it again. I am doing this only out of love for them and love for Tony._

 _Do not try and look for me. Do not let him try and look for me. Neither of you will find me, for if Malachi does not kill me then he will remove me from temptation. I will be allowed no contact with them, and I will be forced to forget about my family. Of course I will never forget them, never. They are my life. But that is why I must leave._

 _I need him to stop believing in me, I need him to feel I betrayed him, because then he will be safe. He will not search for me, and he will not put himself in danger for me. He will put all of his effort into raising Ada and Bod, loving them and caring for them. Please convince him of that. For me? It will be the last ever favour I ask of you. Please. I would ask you to keep them safe, but I know you will do that anyway._

 _I owe you my life, Gibbs. Do this last thing for me and stop him from following me. He will be hurting, and I will be the cause of his pain, but it is the only way and I only wish that one day someone will see fit to punish me for that crime, although maybe my being away from them is my punishment._

 _I love them, Gibbs. I want you to know that, even if they cannot._

 _Thank you for everything,_

 _Ziva_

She brushed the tears away from her cheeks for them only to be replaced moments later as she folded the paper and slid it inside the envelope, stuffing the letter into the pocket of her cargo pants. She sniffed, stifling the torrent of tears that hit her when her eyes fell on the two cots built by Gibbs with her hands. It was the first night the twins were sleeping in the nursery, and she was sat in the rocking chair. She reached for the photograph of her, Tony and the twins that Abby had taken when the team had celebrated their homecoming from the hospital, and had printed and framed. Carefully removing the back so as to make no sound she took the 4x6 out of the wooden frame and turned it over, picking her pen up and writing what had to be said to her children.

 _I hope one day you understand why I did it. Why I left you and your father. I left out of love. I left because I could not live in a world without the three of you. You probably do not even remember me; I left two weeks after this photo was taken._

 _I will never get to see you grow up. But I think, maybe, you might be better off without me around anyway. More importantly, you will be safer._

 _I love you. I always will._

She replaced the photo and wiped her eyes again, standing silently and walking over to the two cots. She felt no desire to bar the tears that fell at their sleeping faces as she stood over them, committing their peaceful looks to memory. "I am sorry. I do love you." She pressed a kiss to each of their foreheads. She continued to watch them for ten minutes before turning the volume back up on the baby monitor on the side table and leaving the room, walking down the hall to the master bedroom. She crept through and crouched beside Tony's side of the bed. His hair was soft as she ran a hand through it and his day-old stubble coarse against her palm. "I love you, Anthony DiNozzo." She brushed her lips lightly against his and froze when he shifted in his sleep. He settled back down again and she sighed, standing up. She moved over to her side of the bed and slipped both her wedding band and engagement ring off of her finger, laying them side by side on the cabinet, next to her alarm clock and the photo of the team that she kept there. She slipped out of the room and down the stairs, pulling her combat boots on and picking her backpack up. She took one last look at the house before stepping outside into the darkness. The agent at the end of the street had his back to her as she walked quickly and quietly past, her head down and her deep blue hoodie and dark pants concealing her in the dark. She was grateful he was only paying great attention to people turning onto the street and not those leaving for she was finding it hard to step back into what Tony called the 'spy routine'. Tears rolled down her cheeks at the thought of Tony, his smile and laugh, the way he looked at her, touched her, and soon enough she was struggling to walk. The low wall of a property gave her the opportunity to sit and she did, weeping silently into her hands. Time slipped past as she sat on that wall, and soon enough the sky began to lighten a touch, deep indigo fading to denim. She sniffed and swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, standing up and looking in both directions. Her first instinct was to go home, crawl into bed and relish in the warmth of her husband's body, but she knew she could not. She had to protect them. She let her feet guide her to Gibbs' house, shutting her mind down completely. She pushed the letter to him through his letterbox and turned away, not letting herself stop any longer than necessary.

* * *

"Mmph…Ziva, 's your turn." Tony mumbled into his pillow as the incessant wailing continued. "Ziva, I went last time." He reached over, intending to nudge her awake, and hit cold bed sheets instead of warm skin. "Ziva?" He sat up and blinked, focusing his eyes on her empty half of the bed. He yawned and swung his legs over the side of the bed, rubbing his face and walking through to the nursery, frowning at the room devoid of his wife and full of screaming children. Well, two screaming children. He sighed and walked over to Ada first, knowing that if he could settle her tears, then she would be able to sleep whilst Ichabod still cried. "Hey, Baby Girl, what's the problem, hey? Do you need changing?" He sniffed and groaned. "Yep. What a great thing to wake up to, hey?" Carrying her over to the changing table he sighed, following a now well-rehearsed routine. "Where's Ima, huh? How come she's not in here changing you? No, I don't know where she is, either. Maybe she's downstairs, hm? Yeah, that must be it. Ima's just downstairs and didn't hear you." He bit his lip, locking eyes with his daughter and shaking his head. "You don't believe that, do you? You know what? Me either." He did her sleeper up and carried her back to her cot, laying her back down and brushing his hands over her soft smattering of hair before turning to her brother, already starting to quieten down. "Was it just your sister who woke you up, hey?" He cooed, bouncing him gently in his arms as he walked around the room. "Where's Ima? Where's Ima, hey? Shall we check downstairs?" He headed out of the nursery, grabbing the baby monitor from his and Ziva's bedroom on his way downstairs, and circuited the house. "Nope, not here." He shook his head, crossing the kitchen to the back door. "Where is she, huh?" He unlocked the door and stepped onto the patio, moving to the steps that lead to their sunken garden. The agent sat on the chair swing looked over and frowned.

"Problem?"

"Ziva's not come out here has she?"

He shook his head. "No. Why?"

"I can't find her. She's probably just…in another room. I'll continue looking." He stepped back inside and locked the door, heading back upstairs. "Maybe she's gone for a run? Ima likes running, you know. We'll phone her." He picked up the landline and dialled her mobile. Ichabod jumped in his arms when the shrill ringing broke the silence of the house and Tony picked the phone up from the dresser, frowning. He hung up and sighed, chucking both phones on the bed before checking the wardrobe. Her running shoes were where they always were, but her favourite boots and a pair of her black heels were missing. "I've really got to get your Ima some more clothes. It's wrong for a guy to know every item of clothing his wife owns. I bet she doesn't even know every item of clothing she owns. Well, she probably does, 'cause your Ima is cleaver like that, but…" He turned in a slow circle, analysing every inch of the room, as he spoke, until his eye caught on something shining on her bedside table. He walked over and froze, unable to take his eyes off of his mother's rings. "Bod, please tell me those aren't what I think they are. Please tell me this is some sort of sick dream, because I can't…" He reached out to touch them, pulling his hand back when his fingers came into contact with the cold metal he was so used to feeling around Ziva's warm finger. "Oh, God. Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God."

* * *

She had walked approximately ten miles by the time she had found what she was looking for. The roads had filled with people going about their daily business and she had removed the dark hoodie, leaving her in a tight, long-sleeved dusky-blue t-shirt that allowed her to blend in with the rest of the population to an extent. She scanned the coffee shop that she had stepped into for any familiar faces and was uncertain whether she should have felt relieved or disappointed that she recognised nobody. She stuck her hand into her backpack, pulling out a handful of coins and walked over to the payphone in the corner. She dialled the number she knew so well and fed coins into the machine, groaning when she got the switchboard. She gave the four-letter code and was immediately patched through to the line she needed. " _Shalom_?"

"I need his number."

" _Ziva._ "

"His number."

" _I do not know who you are talking about._ "

"Aba, I know you spoke with Malachi about Agent DiNozzo and I, now give me his number."

" _Why would I do that?_ "

"Because I have left Tony. Things were not working between us and…I realised what I was missing out on. I realised how much I need Malachi." Her stomach knotted and twisted as she spoke in hushed tones and she placed an icy hand to her clammy forehead. Now was not the time to start feeling emotional. "I want Malachi, Aba. I…I love him."

" _Hmm. Very well then."_ His smug voice made her fist clench around the receiver and her stomach turn, the sick-feeling increasing ten-fold as she wrote the phone number her father recited on the palm of her hand.

"Thank you, Aba." She ground out, hanging the phone up before he even had the chance to respond. She made her way over to the bathrooms and wrinkled her nose at the state of them, suddenly missing the men's room of the NCIS building as she locked the door. Her mind flashed back to conversations in there with Tony and McGee and she had to wipe another tear from the corner of her eye. She pulled out the one business dress she owned, a plain black pencil dress, and stripped down to her underwear before tugging the dress on. She frowned at herself in the mirror and shook her head at her reflection. She looked nothing like the business women out in the coffee shop and on the street, the ones she needed to completely blend in with. She yanked the hair tie out, letting the tight bun collapse on itself and tumble into loose curls. Then, she took out the small handbag that sat at the bottom of her rucksack and stowed the remainder of the spare change from the phone call in a side pocket, pulling out a lipstick and carefully outlining her lips in the tint. She checked that the bag had everything from her backpack that she needed, her back-up weapon and knifes, a passport and drivers license under the name Gina Dalton, a past alias, and a wallet of about $300 cash. It was her backup plan bag, one she had always kept containing everything she may need for a quick escape. She had had it prepared since her eleventh birthday, although its contents had changed slightly over the years. There were a few other items, but none personal. She took the black stilettos out of her backpack and swapped them for the leather boots she was wearing, removing her ankle holster and exchanging it for her thigh holster, flinching as the cold metal of the handgun brushed against the inside of her thigh. She tucked her ankle holster in the black leather bag, not wanting to loose her favourite holster, before taking one last look in the mirror and leaving, her backpack still on the counter. She was pleased to see that she attracted absolutely no attention, fitting in with all of the other professionals as they hurried down the streets. All she needed was a phone attached to her ear and she would be well on her way to being one herself. She had walked another four miles, winding in and out of the streets of DC and regretting her choice in shoes, missing her boots, when she reached a phone box outside a sleazy looking hotel. Using the remainder of the coins she had, she dialled the number on her palm and waited for it to be picked up.

" _Ziva, my love._ "

"Malachi."

" _You have come to your senses, then. Your father called._ "

"I expected he would. I miss you, Malachi."

" _Of course you do._ "

"Can I see you?"

" _That depends. The whole of NCIS is hunting me. Can I trust you, Ziva?_ "

"Yes, Malachi. I realised that you are who I truly want. Please?"

" _And your husband?_ "

"I have left him. He does not know where I have gone."

" _He will not try and find us?_ "

"Not if you hide us. We are two of Mossad's finest, after all. If we cannot disappear then nobody can. Please, I love you."

" _Very well then. I shall send somebody to meet you at the Washington Monument. Be there in half an hour. And Ziva, if you betray me I will hurt Agent DiNozzo and your children. I might even pay a little visit to Elsie and Mina. I promise you."_

She bit her tongue as words of anger and hatred fought to stream from her lips. "I would never do such a thing, Malachi."

" _Good. Be there, Ziva, alone, or else._ " He hung up and she dropped the phone back into its cradle and exhaled shakily, trying not to choke on the tears that were suffocating her. As if on autopilot she hailed a cab and sat in the back, staring out of the window and watching the city that had become her home fly past, blurring into streams of grey as her eyes filled with tears.

 **I will rectify this, do not worry, but I needed a way to get rid of Malachi. I already have parts of the next chapter planned out, and there are already chapters for the future written up, so there is no panicking, it will all turn out all right in the end.**


	63. Chapter LXIII

**You thought I had forgotten about this, yes? Well, you were wrong. I remembered, but I could not get the words I wanted down. I think it was Any Road that kicked me back into action. This was a difficult chapter to write. I spent a lot of time playing around with word order, and what I wanted to actually say.**

 **I have the next chapter mainly written up, and I started writing that one up before I knew what I was going to write for this chapter, so that was, as always, a bit of a challenge.**

 **All conversations with Ziva are in Hebrew, but I hate transliterating, and I cannot be bothered to give translations, so they are written in plain, old, boring English.**

 **...**

LXIII. Trust Takes Years to Build, Seconds to Break, and Forever to Repair.

"Come on, pick up. Pick up." Tony paced the bedroom, phone clutched in one hand and his son cradled in the other. "Gibbs."

"DiNozzo, what's going on? It's 0400hrs."

"It's Ziva. She's gone."

"Gone? What do you mean, gone?" Tony could hear shuffling and a clatter before footfalls on wooden steps.

"You sleep in your basement again last night?"

"DiNozzo, what's wrong?"

"She's left me. She's left her phone and her rings. I can't find her boots or a pair of her heels, or her backpack. They're all gone. One of her court dresses is also missing."

"Tony, calm down and explain slowly," Gibbs said as he picked up the letter on his hall floor and opened it, sliding out the neatly folded paper and scanning his eyes over it. He closed his eyes, tightening his grip on the phone as Tony recounted the little he knew. "I'll be over in ten."

"Why would she do this, Gibbs?" His voice was small, desperate, as he pleaded for an answer.

"I don't know, DiNozzo. I don't know." Gibbs lied through his teeth as he hopped into his truck, stuffing the now crumpled paper into the pocket of his jeans and tearing away from the driveway.

* * *

He was strangely calm when Gibbs arrived, although the tears on his cheeks were the telltale sign that said he was far from it. He was sat on the living room floor, the twins lying in front of him, and he was talking to them, telling them a story. "…most beautiful person I'd ever seen. I didn't think she was real, just another figment of my imagination. Maybe she was. Maybe I've been dreaming all this time. Doesn't explain you two, though, does it?" Ichabod was staring intently at his father, whilst Ada chewed on the foot of her babygrow, rocking from side to side slightly.

"DiNozzo, your door was open. It's freezing in here." Gibbs grumbled, looking around the living room. Everything was as it always was, everything was in place, nothing broken.

"She left her key. I wanted her to be able to get back in, in case she changed her mind, you know?"

"I know, Tony." He sighed as his senior field agent looked up at him, ready to burst into tears.

"I can't do this alone, Boss. I need her."

"We'll bring her home. I promise."

"But she left. She doesn't want to be here." He was growing distressed and Gibbs walked over, sitting down on the floor next to his best agent and sighing.

"She left to keep you three safe. She's already lost one child; I doubt she can face the idea of losing anymore. This way, she is doing her duty as a mother, and as a wife. She is keeping you alive." He watched as Tony started playing with Bod's foot, the boy giving the occasional grin. "When did it stop becoming a reflex?"

"Yesterday. He had not grinned reflexively in a couple of days, and Ziva was blowing raspberries on his tummy. He just grinned. A proper grin. She was so happy. I thought we were happy."

"You were. She's protecting you."

"But it's not her job to do it on her own, Gibbs. She should have told me. We're in this together."

"If she had told you, you would have stopped her."

"Of course."

"Exactly. Look, DiNozzo, She might be utterly infuriating at times, but she's good at what she does. She'll have a plan." He was as convincing as he knew how to be, and though he could see that Tony did not buy it, he could also see that he was grateful for the words of comfort.

* * *

She wished she had formulated a proper plan. She had no idea what she was doing, as she sat on a bench looking up at the Washington Monument. "Quite an impressive structure, do you not think?" She looked down, eying Hadar up as he sat next to her. She had not heard him approach, and he knew this, judging by the smug look on his face.

"You were one of the last people I expected. Was he too afraid that I would come along and shoot him?"

Hadar chuckled. "He is worried that this is all a rouse. I am to check you are unarmed and to escort you to him."

"There are knives and my backup in my bag, but I am certain you do not want me to get them out now, in broad daylight."

"That is what the privacy of a car is for." He smiled condescendingly. "Shall we go? He will be wondering where we have gotten to." She nodded, taking one last, long look up at the marble obelisk before following her father's friend.

She sighed as they walked. "Why you, Amit?"

"Why him, Ziva?" She was uncertain which 'him' he was talking about, and her questioning look told him as much. "Either."

"Because I love him."

"Good answer. That was the one thing I do not think your father ever grasped; love."

"Do I get an answer?"

He narrowed his eyes and sucked on the inside of his cheek. "Your father might be my best friend, but that does not mean I agree with everything he does, or orders me to do."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means, young Ziva, that I sincerely hope you know what you are doing." Young Ziva. He had not called her that in years. It had been a pet name of sorts, when he was training her, teaching her how to run and throw and shoot when her father did not have the time, which meant it was every evening and every weekend. "I might not like your DiNozzo, but I do not trust Malachi."

* * *

"Ziva, you were a good girl, I see." Malachi's grin was nothing like Tony's as they stepped into the dirty hotel room, not warm and jovial, charming and winning, but slimy and evil, cold and cruel. "Thank you, Hadar. Did you take her weapons?" Amit handed over the three blades and one gun that he had removed from her bag, rendering the purse more-or-less useless. "You may leave us now."

A mix of emotions flashed across the older officer's face; worry, fear, confusion and apprehension. "Eli said I was to accompany you until you were out of the country."

"Eli was being overly protective. Besides, you will merely be a hindrance when we cross the border."

Ziva smiled, less than confident. "I will be fine, Hadar." She pressed a kiss to his cheek, whispering an almost silent 'thank you' in his ear, wondering where Malachi would be taking her and whether she would ever see him again.

He sighed, taking one final look at her before backing out of the door, a helpless look on his face. Malachi looked her up and down, narrowing his eyes at the dress before shaking his head. "Your Americans really have ruined you. Is this what NCIS class as practical work attire?" He grumbled with disdain. "It will not do."

"I had to blend in. Nobody will look for me wearing this." She looked down, ashamed of how timid her voice sounded. She was not that scared of him, was she?

He waved a hand dismissively. "We have to go. They will start to look for you soon enough and we need to reach the border before they put out BOLOs."

"I have told them not to." She said quietly and he looked down at her, the first soft smile crossing his face in the time that they had been in the grimy room.

"Good girl." He swooped in for a kiss, pressing his mouth to hers forcefully, and it was all she could do not to squirm. "But how likely are they to listen to you?"

"I told them I did not want to be followed. I have hurt him too much for him to try." She hoped it was true, she hoped that Gibbs would follow her instructions, allow Tony to forget about her. She was doing it for him, keeping him safe, protecting him from Malachi and her father.

Maybe, one day, she might be able to see him again, see her children again, but she knew that even if she got away from Malachi and her father, he would have moved on by then. Gibbs and the team would have helped him to find someone else, someone so much better than her, someone who would not put his life in danger just by loving him. And she did not want to see that. She did not want to see her husband with his arms around another woman, her children calling another woman 'mother'. Tears were threatening to fall as she stood in the corner whilst Malachi checked out of the hotel and she quickly had to think of something else to distract her. He would not stand for her crying over someone she did not love anymore.

So she focused on where he might be taking her. She remembered him mentioning Mexico once or twice, and add that to the border he had dropped into the conversation a few times, she guessed that it was a sound bet she would be somewhere in Mexico within a day or so, depending upon how quickly he drove. Doing the maths in her head, she figured that if he kept to the speed limits to avoid detection, it would take them between 23 and 25 hours, varying slightly with how many stops they made, to reach the border. The last time she had been anywhere with him, he had refused to stop, and she decided that she would be willing to put money on them being in the lower range of her time estimation. How far into Mexico, she did not know.

How she wished for Abby's optimism as Malachi took her hand and lead her to a silver saloon car. How she wished for McGee's kind words of comfort as she sat in the front seat, listening to Malachi go on about how good it felt to have her back. How she wished for Gibbs' fatherly smile and Ducky's reassuring hand patting her own. How she missed Tony's hugs, his jokes and his laughter, his kisses and his touch. She longed to hear his voice, hear him as he shouted at her for leaving him, before burying his face in her hair and telling her how much he had missed her.

* * *

"McGee, bring Abs and get over to Tony and Ziva's place…Ducky too…not as such…I'm gonna need all the help I can get…I'll explain when you get here." Gibbs stuffed his phone into the pocket of his jeans, causing the paper to crumple further. He had already phoned the director, alerting her to the situation, and she was currently sorting out a task force to try and find their Ziva.

Tony had cried himself to sleep on the sofa, and the twins were in Moses baskets on the coffee table, both sleeping as well, leaving Gibbs to call in reinforcements and try and fix up something for them to eat. But the problem with the DiNozzos' kitchen was that it was full of things he did not know how to use, and things he had no idea how to even start cooking. The problem with the kitchen was that it was Ziva's, and Ziva knew how to cook. Why they could not just keep a couple of steaks in there, he did not know.

After rummaging through the fridge, he decided upon omelettes, knowing exactly what to do with a couple of eggs, some leftover vegetables and a frying pan. If only they kept the manual for the hob somewhere accessible and obvious. Giving up on the idea of anything cooked, he went to his go-to source of sustenance, flicking the switch on the coffee machine and waiting for it to ping, getting two mugs out in preparation.

When he went to pour, he hesitated, refraining from pouring Tony a mug, preferring to leave the boy to sleep. Ducky's voice echoed through his head and he chuckled slightly, just as the doorbell went. He opened it to reveal the concerned faces of Ducky, Abby and McGee. "What is going on, Jethro?"

"Ziva. She's left. Off to save the world on her own, brave _him_ on her own." He grumbled. "DiNozzo and the twins are asleep in the living room, but I figured he'd be needing some help, and we need to start working on finding her."

Abby flung herself at him. "I know this is all just a big front to keep yourself safe, and I know that really deep down you're going out of your mind, but show some emotion for once in your life, Gibbs." He wasn't certain whether she was just hugging him, or trying to suffocate him, but the latter was working quite successfully. He smiled gratefully as Ducky tapped Abby's shoulder and she released him, turning to McGee instead.

"We're going to set up shop here?"

The older man nodded. "It's the best way to keep Tony in the loop, and God knows he won't stay out of it."

* * *

Despite staving off sleep for as long as possible, but as they drove across the Louisiana State border, her eyelids grew heavy and she began to lose the strength in her neck to support her head as it lulled to the side. It was dark out the windows, and she was surprised Malachi had not needed to rest, even if just for ten minutes. But then she remembered his ability to stay awake for hours during stakeouts, ignoring anyone's recommendations for sleep. He got like that when he had his heart set on something, as he clearly did during the drive.

Her sleep was disturbed, images of a distraught Tony, screaming, tombstones, blood and flowers flickering in an unregulated, uneven pattern across the dark screen of her mind.

She woke with a start, jolting in her seat and gasping for desperately needed breath as she tried to clear her mind of shards of metal, glass and catalytic converter, removing the image of Tony's charred remains at the driver's seat. She looked out of the window, not ready to face Malachi, to see dry, dusty scrubland with mountains in the distance. The sky was a clear blue, the sun high in the sky and reflecting off of the tarmac that they drove along.

"We passed the border half an hour ago. You have slept for thirteen hours." He reached into the back, blinding claiming a bottle of water and passing it over. "Drink. You will be dehydrated."

She felt his rather clinical assessment was a slight understatement since even with her body adapted to the desert she was parched and the first trickles of cold water felt like heaven as they slipped down her dry throat. "Where are we going to?"

He glanced over at her, as if only just remembering that she was not mute. "We are going to stay in Sabinas until I can get us back to Israel."

She nodded and swallowed thickly, not so certain of what she was doing anymore. It was times like then when she would instinctively phone Tony and ask for his advice. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the window, wanting to shut it all out, to go back to her nightmares in preference over speaking to Malachi for one more minute.

 **...**

 **I really like Hadar – he was my favourite of the Mossad characters (besides Ziva) and I cried when he died. But then, I cried when Eli died, too.**

 **I, like Ziva, have got to stop diving into things without a plan. I think I know where I am going from here, but it is just getting my idea down on paper that will be difficult.**


	64. Chapter LXIV

**I am going to advise that this chapter is a slightly higher T than the others, but not for anything explicit really, just implied stuff.**

 **Okay, my Spanish is not great. Like – so basic that I had to phone my friend who lives in Spain for him to translate what I wanted him to, and I do not know if any of it is correct, but there are translations at the end.**

 **Conversations between Ziva and Malachi are, again, written in English. So are the Spanish conversations after the first section. Basically, everything between Ziva and Malachi is Hebrew, everything else from them is Spanish.**

 **Oh, and reality has gone out the window again for this chapter. I do not care that it is not realistic – it is my story, and I will ignore any comment about it not being realistic.**

 **We have skipped ahead a little bit because I did not want to write a chapter between the last one and this one. I was not even going to have anything from the team back in DC, but then I decided that it did not make much sense not having it.**

 **...**

LXIV. Real Stupidity Beats Artificial Intelligence Every Time

It had been five and a half weeks. Five and a half weeks since she had watched her babies sleep and kissed her husband goodbye. Five and a half weeks since she had seen any of her loved ones. Five and a half weeks of the same routine, living out of a hotel room, shabby and grey, wondering the streets at Malachi's side and pretending to enjoy the sex that was beginning to dull in pain the more and more she was thrown onto the bed.

If she had not known the strength he harboured she would have tried to fight him off, but she did know, and she knew that even with all the training in the world she would never beat him in a physical fight. He was strong, lanky but muscular and, unlike Tony, there was no softness to him. There was no give. It was like he had been carved - badly - from a cliff. All angles and unattractive lines, coarse edges and a scruffy appearance. He had been attractive to her when they were younger and she had little to base her judgement off – he had been what she thought a man should be.

He was heavy-handed and rough, too, as he always had been, and the strong, confident woman she thought she could remember herself being looked down in shame as she noticed the was she flinched at loud noises and sharp movements. She was disappointed in herself for not being braver, not having anything that she could say or do to make him stop. She tensed as his hand constricted around her wrist.

"I am going to speak to the man outside. Get fruit and food for dinner." Malachi said, his voice as hard as it always was. "Do not do anything stupid, Ziva." She nodded subserviently, knowing that he knew she would not. She studied the colourful fruits, not finding any of them appealing, just as the woman next to her dropped her bag. Ziva bent down to pick it up and passed it over when her eyes dropped to the phone clutched in the woman's hand and her chest constricted at the idea that gripped her. The thought of her husband's voice. "¿Puedo?" She pointed, glancing both ways to check she was not being watched.

The woman looked down, as if surprised she had the phone in her hand, and passed it over "sí".

The number came naturally as she dialled, and she held the phone to her ear, nervously checking that Malachi would not be finding her phoning home. " _Hello…hello? Is somebody there?_ " Her breath caught in her throat as Tony's voice filtered down the line. She could hear one of the twins cry in the background and she had to cover her mouth to stifle her sobs. " _McGee, can you take this?_ "

" _Who is it?_ "

" _Dunno, can't hear anything._ " The phone changed hands and she hung up as McGee started to question whom it was calling.

"Gracias."

She hesitated when taking the mobile back before tucking it in her pocket. "De nada"

Ziva hurriedly swiped the tears away from her cheeks just as Malachi rounded the corner, anger flaring in his eyes when he saw the watermarks on her face. "What did you do, Ziva?"

She shook her head desperately as he gripped her upper arm. "Nothing."

"Then why the tears?"

"Ella está en el dolor." The stranger interrupted. Malachi whirled on her, growling.

"¿Quién te preguntó?"

To give her her dues, she was not intimidated by him. But then, she did not know him. "Ella dijo que le dolía el estomago."

"Is this true, Ziva? Your stomach hurts." She nodded, gritting her teeth for effect. "Like it did when you lost our baby?" It did not, but, figuring it was the best way to get him off her back, she nodded again. "We are going back to the hotel. The healthcare here is terrible." His hand tightened around her arm as he dragged her back down the street towards their small hotel room. "I have a friend. He is a doctor."

She had been wrong. It was not going to get her out of trouble. This was why she hated lying. "The hospital will be able to help me better. They might save our baby." She smiled hopefully and he paused, considering it, before pulling her across to a taxi that pulled over when he waved.

* * *

"Sir, you have to leave."

"No. She is my wife. I will not leave her." Ziva turned her face away as she cringed at the blatant lie. She wore no ring proclaiming her as his, nor was there any paperwork. It was just another of his fantasies she had noticed he had created.

The nurse was growing as irritable as he was. "You have to. No. No bribes. You must leave. We cannot have you in here."

"That is my child, though."

"I will be fine, Malachi." She gave a weak smile, the tears that were streaming down her cheeks all for show as she sniffed and laid a tender hand on her stomach. She was lying on an examination table and she had changed into a hospital gown upon their arrival, the itchy material aiding her performance.

"I'm not leaving."

"Sir, you have to." He was pushed out of the hospital room to sit in the empty waiting room and the nurse walked over to stand by the doctor. She was middle age, her hair up in a simple ponytail and her face kind and inviting, although Ziva guessed it could be stern and strict when it wanted to be.

The doctor reminded her of Dr Wilson, Ada's audiologist, and real tears leaked from her eyes again at the thought of her children. "What hurts?"

She bit her lip, considering her options, before shaking her head. She kept her voice quiet as she started to speak. "Nothing hurts. I told him so he would not ask why I was crying."

"But you are pregnant?"

"No." She realised she would have to explain that one to Malachi, how she was not actually pregnant as he had come to think she was in the taxi ride, as she had led him to believe. "You can tell him I lost the baby, yes? That you did all you could, but he took too much time getting me here?"

The doctor studied her, frown lines creasing his face. "No. We do not lie here."

"Please? He believes I am pregnant and I am not." She tried to keep the pleading from her voice as she wondered when it was that she grew so desperate, but despite all of her efforts her tone still reminded her of a young child.

"So you lied to him." The doctor shrugged. "You should not have lied." He was not as kind as Dr Wilson had been.

The nurse broke in. "Does he hurt you?"

"I…"

She turned to the doctor without waiting for an answer. "We have a duty to protect her. You do not have to go home to him." The second part was directed to Ziva.

The doctor shook his head. "No. We cannot help. We do not lie."

"He does not hurt me."

"You have bruises on your arm." Ziva rolled the short sleeve of her t-shirt over her shoulder to reveal the hand shaped mark from where he had held her earlier, shocked that it was so noticeable.

"He did not do that."

"Then who did?" She was left stumped, no answer coming to her.

"I have to go back to him."

"You do not have to do anything."

"I do, alright? You do not understand – I have no choice. If you will not tell him what I asked you to, then I will. Please? I doubt it is the first time you have lied." She was growing impatient and nervous knowing that Malachi could burst in at any moment, fed up of waiting.

The nurse sighed. "He will not believe us if we simply allow you to go home after a miscarriage. Not considering the pain you were in. We have spare beds."

"I cannot allow this. It is wrong."

"Is it?" The nurse challenged. "She will not be taking up anyone's time since she is not actually ill, we are not full at the moment, and it is not the first time you have lied. What harm is it doing?"

He conceded. "Fine. But as soon as we need the beds, she is out. And he follows the same visiting hours as everyone else. I do not like him."

"I'd be surprised if anyone does." The nurse murmured, raising her eyebrows questioningly when Ziva chuckled quietly. "I will tell him that we are taking you into surgery but it is to save your life, not your child's, and then I will take you through to the ward." She smiled. "I am certain that we can adjust visiting hours, too, so he is not here as long." She left Ziva and the doctor staring at one another from the corners of their eyes, pretending not to.

"Your story, it does not fit. You have no medical records, and yet you can afford this hospital. You are not pregnant, yet your husband thinks you are. Who are you?" She stayed silent as she figured the best story to tell. "The truth is advisable, now. I will not tell anyone, I promise. Patient confidentiality."

"I am a federal agent from America. My husband and children are at home, and I can never contact them again. Malachi is my ex-partner. We were together, undercover, a long time ago, and I was pregnant. I lost his child, and he wants another." She mumbled as she sat up from where she was still laying on the paper-covered bed, propping herself up against the wall and tucking her knees up to her chin under the hospital gown.

"Do you?" At her frown he clarified. "Want another baby."

Her headshake was violent in nature. "I have two babies at home and two foster children. He has threatened their lives and my husband's life. I cannot see them ever again, and if I do he will kill them."

"And you believe that he will?"

"I know he will. He has killed cold-bloodedly before." The doctor was taken aback. "He is an officer of the Israeli Mossad. There is nothing you can do."

"Your husband, he is not going to look for you?"

"I told them not to. Malachi has my father on his side – I will never escape him."

The doctor nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "I believe you."

* * *

The doctor had sat by the bed that she had been assigned not long after she had gotten settled, the heavy silence he carried around with him more prominent in the eerily empty ward. "You know, I could lose my job for this."

"I know. And I am sorry. I will go as soon as you ask me to leave." She said wearily. It was the first time in a long while she had laid down without the constant fear of Malachi looming over her, and she realised just how tired she was.

"I do not want to make you leave. I want to help you." He bit his lip. "Call your husband. Tell him you are safe here." He pulled a phone from his pocket, giving her a small, almost mischievous smile. "I borrowed it from the nurse."

"Does she know you borrowed it?"

He bowed his head. "I left her a note." He watched as she typed in the number, hesitating momentarily before hitting the call button, holding the phone to her ear.

" _DiNozzo speaking. Hello? Look, whoever this is, I am not in the mood for it. It's not funny. Either tell me who this is or stop calling me._ " She did not know what made her stay silent, other than the fact that she did not want to fill the line with her voice when his was the only one she wanted to hear. There was a muffled shout in the background and the line crackled as if he were holding his hand over the mic. " _Another empty line. It's just rude, y'know? Cruel and cold-hearted. Stupid teena-_ " he hung up. Ziva brushed the tears away from her cheeks, handing the phone back.

"Keep it. She will not mind." He smiled. "Besides, you might need to hear his voice again."

"Thank you, Doctor."

He sighed and nodded, standing up and grumbling to himself as he made for the door. He turned at the last minute, watching as the fingered the keys of the phone. "Your husband wishes to see you. I have told him you should be out of surgery in half an hour, and you will need an hour's recovery time, minimum. But he is pushy."

"Thank you. For everything." She said quietly as she slipped the phone under the flat, well-used pillow and lay her head down, letting her eyes fall shut with no conscious volition.

* * *

Tony grumbled, throwing his phone at the couch. "Again, Tony?" It was the fourth time in the space of four hours that he had received calls to his phone with nobody on the other end, and he was starting to get frustrated with the technology.

"Is it the same number?" Ever thinking McGee piped up from where he sat in the kitchen, calling through the open door. The twins were outside in the garden, Abby trying to teach them to sign as she had been for the past five weeks. Nobody dare tell her that they were only three months old.

They had settled into a routine, the team minus Ziva. Abby and McGee had been staying the night, Abby in the spare bedroom and McGee on the sofa, whilst Gibbs and Ducky were spending the majority of their days over there, helping around the house, cooking, tidying, aiding in babysitting duties. It was run like a ship, and it seemed to be the only way to keep everyone focused as they took it in turns to pour over any tiny scrap of evidence that turned up – Ziva's bag, found in a coffee-shop bathroom, a CCTV image of her climbing into a car with an older man, a photo from a toll booth that could have been Ziva, but it could have been any brunette under the age of fifty.

The only shred of evidence they had was a possible BOLO match that got lost in translation, pinging up on one of the laptops set up along the breakfast bar two days prior – nearly five weeks after it had been sent from the Mexico border. It was a clear photo of a sleeping Ziva in the front seat of a car. They had not got the message about the BOLO until they had let the car through, and when they found the car it had been left by the side of the road with nothing in it, a two-hour drive from the border.

McGee was the only one who did not work in shifts, doing what came naturally to him and focusing on his laptop screen, analysing every single bit of data that came their way. Tony picked his phone back up and scrolled through the recent call page. "The last three were the same, but the first one was different."

"Can you redial it?" McGee had, for the first time that morning, stepped away from the glowing screen and walked through to stand in the doorway. He watched as Tony did so and sighed when he shook his head.

"It's turned off."

"I could still try and get a trace," Tim suggested, realising that he was probably grasping at straws but not having anything else to go on. He held his hand out for the phone, closing his fingers around it when Tony reluctantly placed it in his palm. "Go get Abby in, I'll need her help."

He nodded, heading towards the back garden just as the doorbell rang. "You can get Abby, help her bring the twins in, I'll get the door." He watched McGee nod before going and answering the door. The face staring at him when he opened it was possibly the last one he expected to see. "What do you want?"

"To talk."

"Look, right now, not such a great time." He shook his head, about to slam the door, when a foot was placed in the way.

"I would not advise that, Agent DiNozzo. We both want the same thing."

"No. No, I want my wife back. I have no idea what you want, but I know it's not that." His glare would have broken any normal man down, possibly even made Gibbs falter slightly, but it was not a normal man he was glaring at. He shifted his gaze to the man stood behind the older man. "You. You're on the security footage. You know where she is!"

"No, agent DiNozzo, I do not."

"This is not a conversation to be had on the doorstep, Agent DiNozzo." Tony narrowed his eyes before stepping back slightly, pointing them through to the living room.

"What is it you want then?"

"Agent DiNozzo, I want my daughter back."

 **…**

 **Ooh, the plot thickens… I already have a lot of the next chapter written up, too. Yay! I do not know how long to make it and where to move on to the chapter after it, though.**

 **¿Puedo? – may I?**

 **Sí – yes**

 **Gracias – thank you**

 **De nada – You're welcome.**

 **Ella está en el dolor – she is in pain.**

 **¿Quién te preguntó? – who asked you?**

 **Ella dijo que le dolía el estomago – she said her stomach hurts**

 **Thank you once more to my friend in Spain who helped with the translation, though if any of it is wrong, it is all because of a crackly phone line.**


	65. Chapter LXV

**300 reviews! I did a little dance when I saw that number. And I really am amazed, you know, that even now, 65 chapters in, there are still people checking it out, reading the whole thing in a couple of days – honestly, I rarely start reading anything with over 30 chapters already, and this has over** **133814 words. That is insane! I did not know I had that many words in me.**

 **…**

LXV. Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder… Or Forgetful…

 _"Agent DiNozzo, I want my daughter back."_

"Yeah, well, didn't you get that when you threw Mr Mossad at her?"

"If you are talking about Malachi, I had hoped he would bring her back home to me. I had not counted upon him ceasing all contact as soon as he had her." Eli looked down at his hands.

"Amit Hadar." He held his hand out, dropping it when Tony ignored it. "I was supposed to accompany them until they reached Tel Aviv. Malachi refused to let me accompany them even to the Mexican border."

"So they are in Mexico?" There was a trace of hope in Tony's voice as he looked up at their wedding photos above the mantle piece.

Eli pursed his lips, following Tony's line of sight. "Possibly." He stepped closer to the photos. "My beautiful girl."

"Why'd you do it? You could have just…been a normal dad. Let her be happy." He wouldn't admit that he had been crying himself to sleep any more than he would admit that there were tears in his eyes as he spoke. Cries came from the kitchen and Abby's voice filtered indistinctively over them.

"I did not think she was. My Ziva was always happy when she was fighting, working, not…this." He waved his hands in the air. "I did not think this is what she wanted. I did not think this was what made her happy."

"Then you clearly don't know her at all."

"Tony, Bod's not taking the formu-" Abby walked through, Ichabod in one arm and a bottle of formula in her other hand. She looked between the three men before walking over to Tony, lowering her voice. "He's not taking the formula again."

"He wants Ziva." Tony nodded, accepting his son. "Sorry, Little One. She's still not back. But we're working on it. We're gonna find her and we're gonna bring her home. But until then, you need to stay strong. You need to drink the nice yummy formula so you can show Ima how much you've grown when she gets back from her trip." Bod continued to wail and Tony sighed. "I know, I lied, the formula's yucky, but it's all we've got."

"Ziva would never drink formula, either." Tony glanced over his shoulder at Eli.

"Yeah, how'd you manage it?"

"We did not. She was stubborn."

"Still is." Tony, Hadar and Abby all muttered at the same time.

"Agent DiNozzo, I want my daughter back, home in Israel with me. But, I also want her happy. And I guess, if it is you that will make her happy, I will help bring her back to you. I want to be a part of her life."

"And how do you propose to help?" Abby challenged as Tony appeared to considered the proposition.

"We may only have the manpower that we can gather from the embassy, but we have much better surveillance technology than you, and our training is much better in these areas. We want her back just as much as you do."

Abby shrugged when Tony turned to her for guidance. "Sorry, Tony. This is a Ziva question. I don't know what you should do."

He bit his lip, looking down at his son and then up to the wedding photo before sighed and shaking his head. "I can't believe I'm about to do this." He locked his eyes with Eli, giving a small nod. "I can guarantee that she will be happy if you help us bring her home to me, and I can guarantee that I will keep her safe, but I cannot promise that she will let you into our life. That can only be promised by her."

"I understand, Agent DiNozzo."

"And, no matter how much technology you have, everything is run through here. This is headquarters. We remain in control, you are just advising. And, until Ziva is home and safe, and gives you the all clear, you stay away from our children. Is that understood?"

"Perfectly, Agent DiNozzo." All three men nodded to one another.

"Okay, one last thing, call me Agent DiNozzo again in that tone and I'm kicking you out of the house. Hear me?"

"What would you rather us call you?" Hadar asked hesitantly.

"Tony. Just call me Tony. This is Abby, McGee's in the kitchen doing his typy thingy, Gibbs and Ducky are out getting lunch. That's everyone."

"Not quite everyone." Eli nodded to the boy in Tony's arms and the agent shook his head.

"Everyone. You stay away from them. That includes knowing their names."

* * *

"I've got it! I've narrowed it down to…Mexico…" Abby's shoulder's slumped as she stared at her screen. "Really? Is that all you can give me? Mexico? We've spent the last hour working on this and all we can get is Mexico?"

"Well, it narrows it down to about 0.4% of the landmass of the world. If it even is her." McGee shrugged as everyone gathered around the screens. Gibbs and Eli had not spoken a word since Gibbs and Ducky returned with food, whilst Ducky and Hadar had been getting along like a house on fire, regaling one another with tales of battles and war stories.

"Oh, great, McPessimist, that's really helpful. We still have the 2000000km2 of Mexico to search, with no clue as to where they could be."

"It would help if we had some idea of where they might have been initially heading to." Abby looked across to the two Israeli's expectantly.

"We have safe houses across the world. Multiple safe houses in Mexico alone. He could have gone to any one of them." Hadar shook his head.

"Only a few of them have surveillance, and only a few are on file anywhere. And that is discounting any that Malachi may have set up himself."

McGee groaned. "Can you get Mossad to check the ones with security first? Then expand surveillance to areas with safe houses in. If they send us the footage, we can scan through it."

"Of course." Eli nodded as Tony grunted in frustration, standing up and storming out of the room. "Was it something I said?"

"He gets like this. He's angry that it's taking so long." Abby sighed as she and McGee when back to typing. "There's nothing we can do until he's stopped crying now. Not for him, anyway. We can keep working, keep trying to find her." Gibbs then stood up, slightly less dramatically than Tony, and, after grabbing his phone from the countertop, walked out of the open back door, across the patio and down the steps to the sunken garden. He flipped his phone open and held it to his ear. "That, that hasn't been a regular occurrence so far – that might have been caused by you." Abby shrugged a shoulder before turning back to the screen.

* * *

As soon as he reached their bedroom he made a beeline for the wardrobe, pulling out the first garment he knew to be hers. He clutched it in his hands, the soft fabric of the t-shirt, pressing it to his face and inhaling deeply, sobbing into the material that smelt so strongly of his wife. He grabbed the camcorder from the dresser before sliding to the floor, flipping the screen open and hitting replay on the last thing to be filmed. It did not get any easier with each time he watched it, but it was the only thing with Ziva's voice on it, the last images he had of her, and he needed to watch it over and over to memorise her, to stop him from forgetting. I needed to remember the little things, the things that were starting to slip from his mind; the way her voice would change when she was happy, the way her eyes crinkled when she laughed, the way she would pause and swallow before recalling something from her past or thinking about something sad. He needed her back. He needed to be able to touch her skin, taste her lips, smell her hair. He needed her voice to tell him she loved him, her breathing to lull him to sleep. He was beginning to lose it without her by his side.

* * *

Gibbs was still on the phone half an hour later when a key in the door announced the arrival of the director. They had all had keys cut when it had become difficult for someone to be constantly opening the door to allow people in. She smiled, pressing a kiss to both of the twin's foreheads as she entered the kitchen. "Anyone know who he's calling?"

"Not a clue." Ducky shook his head. "Although, the answer has been staring us in the face the whole time." Five blank faces stared at him. "Well, it's perfectly obvious now I think about it. Who does he talk to that much?" Five shrugs. "Who would be useful at a time like this?" Five more shrugs and a couple of head shakes. "Mexico."

"Mike!" Abby beamed. "But without knowing where she is, how's Mike going to help?"

"He'll be like a first responder. He'll be the first one of us able to get to her, someone she knows and trusts, and he'll have somewhere safe he can take her." McGee explained in his oh-I-get-it-now voice.

"Who is this Mike?" Hadar asked, slightly concerned by the addition of even more people into the mix – and more names to remember.

"Gibbs mentor. A bit of a cowboy, but loyal to Gibbs and fond of Ziva." Ducky said. "If he gets to her first, he'll keep her safe."

The phone rang and everyone fell silent as they looked to Tony. They had spent the past hour coaching him on what to do with the next phone call – keep her on for as long as possible, do not alert her to the fact he knows it is her, try and get her to talk, try and ascertain if she is okay. They were all pretty common-sense things, and he was starting to get annoyed by the level of patronisation they were reaching. "Hello?" The line was empty. "Look, I'm getting pretty fed up of these calls. I don't like not knowing things, and I don't really have time for this, and it's making me feel useless because it's taking me away from more important things. See, my wife's disappeared, stupidly run off thinking she can keep our family safe, even though it's just gonna get her killed, and our babies are struggling without her – our son is refusing to drink formula, and our daughter wakes up more and won't allow anyone to get her back to sleep. And our whole family's working night and day to try and find her, and I miss her. I miss holding her. Have you ever missed someone that much?" The caller hung up, not without allowing a few sobs to be heard over the line.

"Aha! I've got it down to North-East Mexico."

"I can do you one better than that, Abs. I've got a town. Sabinas? Ring any bells." Head shakes and shrugs all round as everyone looked to one another for any ideas. "Well, that's where our trace is coming from. Now all we need to do is find out if it's her and get down there."

"And find a way to get rid of Malachi." Amit reminded them. "But I think we can deal with that."

"Mike can get over there faster than us, he can scout out the town, see if he can locate her and Malachi, whilst we figure out a plan."

"Make certain that it is her first, then we fly out. We do not want to waste time on a wild goose chase." There was a general consensus that Eli was right, with even Gibbs nodding, before they split off to pack and make arrangements.

"Abby, you and the Director can stay here with Ducky to look after the twins?"

"I find that a sexist generalisation that you should assume that just because the director and I are women we will be content to just stay at home with the children!"

"Abby, I just meant that because you have no field training and the director has an agency to run, I think it might be better for you to stay and hold the fort. Besides, I included Ducky in that, and unless there's something he's not telling us…" Tony trailed off, turning to Ducky's shaking head with a smirk.

"Go and get ready to bring your wife home, Anthony." There was a small smile at the corners of Ducky's mouth, as lingered around the corners of everybody's mouths. There was an air of hope that filled the house, a buzzing hum of energy that flooded the rooms as soon as McGee and Abby got a trace.

 **…**

 **I cannot remember a single conversation between Gibbs and Eli. I am certain there must have been at least one but I cannot remember it.**


	66. Chapter LXVI

**There is a lot of dialogue in this, and they do not get very far, but I could not further it any more. I have been grappling with this chapter for so long, and I could not get any further with it.**

 **Oh, it is Good Friday, so happy Good Friday 2017, and it is also Pesach, so happy Pesach 2017. I only really keep up to date with the celebrations/holidays in Judaism and Christianity, so happy whatever other celebrations there are today/this week.**

 **…**

LXVI. Dance is the Hidden Language of the Soul.

He jammed the buttons of the phone, trying to get it to obey him. He tried shaking it, hitting it against his thigh and holding one of the buttons down before it finally cooperated, the irritating bleeping stopping. He hated the things. He hated that he was suddenly required to use one. He hated that he knew nothing about them. He held the offending object to his ear, grimacing at the tinny voice. "What's that, Probie? I missed the first bit."

"I said, have you arrived yet?"

"Yeah, just got out of the car. I hate hitchhiking, Probie. You know I do."

"Well who's problem's that? It certainly ain't mine."

"You're the one sent me here."

He could hear Gibbs' frustrated expulsion of air over the line. "We want to make sure it's her before we head over – Tony doesn't want to leave the twins for a wild goose chase."

"I know, Probie. Keep an eye out for Lady Ziva and Mr Mossad."

"Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"This guy can be unpredictable. Keep your distance." He knew what he was doing, had been doing it for longer than Gibbs, but it was Gibbs' way of telling him that he was important enough for someone to want him alive.

He paused for a moment, letting Gibbs know the message had sunken in. "I know that, Probie."

* * *

"I do not see why she needs to be kept here any longer. She has been here for a day, she does not look like she is in pain, why can we not leave?"

"You may leave whenever you like, Mr Levy, but we want to keep your wife in for observation. She still needs time to recover. Her body has had a stressful few days." Doctor López insisted. His hatred for the man before him had grown exponentially in the time he had been visiting.

"You cannot keep her against her will."

"Sir, we are doing so for your wife's well-being."

"And what about my baby's well-being?" It had not gone down well when Malachi had been told that Ziva 'lost' the baby, although both the nurse, the doctor and Ziva were all positive that it went down much better than it would have if he discovered that Ziva had lied.

"We told you, you were too late getting her here. It was all we could do to save her. Now, if you are going to continue to cause a disturbance I will have to ask you to leave."

"You cannot ask me to leave. My wife is here."

"And your wife is sleeping."

Malachi huffed, shaking his head as he turned to leave. "I have some business to sort out."

The doctor watched as he left before walking over to sit by the hospital bed. "He has gone, Ziva. You can open your eyes now."

"Thank you." She gave a weak, apologetic smile.

"Do not mention it. I think the nurses are enjoying the entertainment. It is better than their soap operas."

* * *

Tony wanted his wife back. It was only to be expected. She had been gone for too long and he was struggling without her. He always said that he would never be able to live without her, and now he had his proof. DiNozzo men did not cry. Not until now, they did not. But now, all he seemed to be doing when he was alone was crying. He looked through bleary eyes at the alarm clock and sniffed when he saw the time, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands until they were red and sore. After heaving a heavy sigh, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and headed quietly downstairs to get a glass of water.

He frowned at the glow emanating from the kitchen along with the tapping of keys. "McGoo?"

"Hmm? Hey." Tim said with a tiredness to his voice.

"What are you doing up?"

McGee yawned and stretched. "Going through some of the surveillance footage Eli had sent over."

"Ugh, that guy. What right does he have, coming into my home and saying he wants his daughter back when he was the one who sent her away?"

"You don't think he'll let her stick around when we get her back?" McGee asked with a concerned frown.

"Don't know yet. We're using him, McGee. Let's just make sure he's not using us, too." He poured a glass of water. "Got anything yet?"

"Not sure. Maybe." He turned the screen around so Tony could see it. "Could that be them?" The fuzzy image showed a man shouting at a woman in a market, with another woman standing nearby.

"It could be anyone. Is this as good as Mossad can do?"

"I don't think they sent us everything they have, Tony. There seems to be some stuff missing. They've sent us the latest stuff first. I don't know, maybe it's nothing." He shrugged.

"You know that it's 0300hrs, right?"

"Uh-hu."

"Tim," he looked at the younger agent, his friend, whom he spent ninety percent of the day teasing and making fun of, "Tim." McGee looked up at him, the blue light of the screen casting strange, flickering shadows across his face in the dark. "Go to bed. Pick this up in the morning. You'll not get anywhere with this if you can't keep your eyes open in the morning."

"Tony, the more I do now…"

"The less use you are tomorrow. Get some sleep, Abby will clean the images up in the morning and we can go from there."

McGee nodded. "And what about you? Are you going to sleep?"

"I can't. She's not there, McGee. The bed's too cold, and she's not there." Tony turned to look out the window, staring at the darkness beyond the kitchen. "I'll go watch the twins for a bit, see if that helps."

"Okay." He pat Tony's shoulder and headed through to the living room where he unfolded the blanket and pillow that he had been using for the past few weeks.

* * *

"What's that?" Tony pointed to a building on Abby's screen. She swallowed, looking to McGee to check how much to tell Tony. The junior agent gave a minute shake of his head, perceivable by only the most observant. And Tony had been practicing his observation skills. "Tell me."

"It's the location of Ziva's last three phone calls."

"You're not telling me something." He leaning into McGee's face, his hot breath hitting McGee's skin. It was the first time Tim had truly felt afraid of his friend. "That's my wife, McGee. You tell me everything."

"Hey!" Gibbs pulled him back. "Pack it in. Back off and calm down."

"What are you not telling me, McGee?" He asked, slightly calmer this time, as he sat on the opposite side of the kitchen.

There was a slight hesitation and Gibbs was about to kick him into action when McGee finally started. "The building that Ziva is calling from, it's…it's a hospital, Tony."

"A hospital." He gave a slow nod as his head started to spin. "Something's wrong, she's sick, or she's injured. What if he did something to her?"

"DiNozzo, calm down. We still do not know that it is her yet."

"It's got to be, Gibbs. Who else would it be?"

* * *

Mike wrinkled his nose as he walked through the front door of the hospital, taking in the grimy interior. The light was yellow and the wallpaper was faded, peeling in one of the corners. He would not guarantee that the floor was clean and the absence of windows in the main reception gave the place a dingy appearance.

He walked over to the main desk, leaning against it and waiting for the receptionist to look up at him. "You seen either of these people?"

"Sure. The man is coming in every few hours and the lady is a patient upstairs."

"What ward?"

"Uh, I cannot…"

"She's a family friend. I thought I'd surprise her, make her feel better."

Although not looked fully trusting, the nurse nodded. "Obstetrics."

"Obste-what-trics?" He scrunched his face up at the medical mumbo-jumbo. Plain Spanish was good for him.

"Obstetrics. The study of pregnancy."

"Right. Of course." He nodded, feeling his stomach plummet as he walked in the direction pointed to. He did not want to have to be the one to tell Gibbs that his married agent was pregnant – and by the man they were trying to catch? There was no way in Hell he was gonna be the one to announce the news of that bouncing bundle of joy. And he certainly did not envy Gibbs for being the one to have to tell DiNozzo. He followed the signs, winding his way through corridors and up stairwells until he reached the obstetrics ward, walking up to the ward desk. "Hi. I'm looking for this lady. Her name's Ziva. I was wondering if you've seen her anywhere."

"Not here. No woman here." The nurse shook her head adamantly, catching the eye of an older man in a white lab coat who walked over. "He's looking for a woman."

"Ziva…" he scrunched his face up, wracking his brain for the surname given to him by Gibbs. "Ziva Levy, perhaps." He showed the photograph of Ziva that Tony had sent.

"We cannot help you. There is no woman here."

"You mind if I look around, check that you're telling the truth?" He was already craning his neck, looking past curtains into empty beds.

"It depends who is asking."

"Mike Franks, working with the American Federal Agents." He said pointedly as he started walking around, finding all of the beds on the ward empty. "If you see anything, you phone me on this number." He scrawled the number of the cell he was being forced to use and laid it on the desk.

* * *

"You are feeling better now, yes?" Doctor López asked as Ziva walked back up from the physiotherapy gym.

"Almost." She handed a small, stitched bag back to him. "Thank your daughter for the use of them for me."

He shook his head, refusing the bag. "She will not be using them anymore."

"I am sorry."

"But they are a good fit?"

"Surprisingly good, yes." She smiled softly, taking one of the worn pointe shoes out of the pink bag and touching her fingers to the worn satin. "They are well broken in."

"She would dance every day. The repetition kept her grounded, she would say."

Ziva nodded and smiled sadly as she sat down on her hospital bed, rolling onto her side as the doctor sat in his chair next to her. "I used to find the pain of pointe work would take away the pain from everything else in life. I needed that today."

"You miss your babies, yes?" She swallowed and nodded, closing her eyes to prevent the tears from rolling down her cheeks. "Is there anybody else looking for you?"

"I do not know." She shrugged, a niggle of concern tugging at the back of her mind at the sudden change of circumstance.

"There was a man searching for you today." Her eyes flashed open as he produced a scrap of paper with a scrawled number on it. "Do you know this phone number?"

"No. It is not one that I know."

"He was an old man, grey hair, scruffy face, American Federal Agent."

"Gibbs?" Her eyes lit up. "Gibbs is in Mexico?"

"Not Gibbs. He said his name is Mike Franks. Do you know him?"

 **…**

 **I want to try and get Tony to Mexico in the next chapter and get Ziva back home, because I am bored of this part of the story now.**


	67. Chapter LXVII

**I am so, so sorry that I have not written anything in a while. But I am back. For this chapter, at least. I am getting slow again.**

 **It struck me when reading your reviews (I replied to none of them again – I feel bad about that, sorry, but life was…life – it got in the way) that I never actually specified that Malachi is not the Malachi we know and hate. Malachi is a different Malachi to Ben-Gidon from season 7. I mean, in this we have Malachi Levy, but I never specified that that was not an undercover name – or even me forgetting his name and not being bothered to check it.**

 **Well, I did sort of forget. When I was choosing a name for our bad guy, I chose Malachi knowing that we could not have a Michael but forgetting that there was already a Malachi. For some reason I naturally gravitate towards names beginning with an M.**

 **I just thought I would clear that up now, although it should have been done about ten chapters ago. So sorry about that. I hope that any confusion I have caused is gone now. If not, leave a review (or PM) with your question and I will try to answer it.**

LXVII. No man, for any considerable period, can wear on face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true. 

"Mike. Any news?"

"I checked out the hospital." He was sat in a bar across the road, watching the main, and only public, entrance to the hospital.

"And?"

He sighed. How much did he tell them? That although the receptionist said she was there, when directed to the ward there was no sign of her? That the ward he had been sent to was the obstetrics ward? "I didn't see either of them. I'm keeping watch over it, though."

"Why? You think they're there?"

"The main receptionist said she was a patient there, but when I went up to her ward there was no trace of her and the doctor denied all knowledge of her."

"Malachi might have something to do with that. We don't know how many people he's paid off." He could have sworn he could hear Gibbs' cogs turning. "What ward?"

"A…general one."

"Mike." There was an impatience along with a threat in his tone.

"Obstetrics. Pregnancy stuff."

"Christ." Mike winced at a bang and the sound of a hammer hitting wood. "DiNozzo doesn't find out about this little bit of information until we know exactly what's going on."

"Uh-hu. Probie, I've gotta go." He threw a couple of bills on the bar as he stood up.

"Mike?"

"Malachi's just walked into the hospital."

"And Ziva?"

"Not there." He hung up, pocketing the phone and following at a leisurely pace. He accepted a small bouquet of cosmos and poppies from a street-seller, overpaying the old woman slightly but not wanting to waste too much time and lose sight of Malachi. He trailed the younger man, keeping a distance between them as he jogged up the same stairs he had already taken that morning. He hung back as Malachi signed in and walked towards the glass doors that separated the beds from the reception area. Noting that there seemed to be no discussion and therefore no hint of suggestion that Malachi was being informed of his earlier presence, he headed over to the desk, smiling sweetly at the nurse on reception duty. "You lied to me."

She looked up at him and worried her lip nervously. "I…" The doctor walked through just then and she stood up, catching his attention.

"Ah, Mr Franks. I have contacted the main desk and we have sorted out the mix up. Your daughter is downstairs with Dr Mallard. I will take you to her."

"Okay…" He nodded hesitantly, fingering the weapon concealed at his hip as he followed the doctor out of the ward, confusion written across his face. "You know Ziva is not my daughter, right?"

The doctor nodded. "My name is Dr López. I have been caring for Ziva whilst she has been here with us. I was not certain that Mr Levy would have been happy knowing that you are here to see Ziva. She told me you would trust me more if I mentioned a Dr Mallard. I apologise for deceiving you – it was for her own safety."

"Her _safety_? Then what are you doing letting that psycho in there?"

"Mr Levy is visiting his wife. We cannot stop him from doing so." López narrowed his eyes. "You are here to take her back home? To her Tony? She has told me to tell you not to, to let her deal with it."

"I am here to make certain she is safe. Her real husband will be flying up as soon as possible to take her home and keep her safe." He rubbed the stubble on his chin. "Why's she here? She pregnant?"

"No." The doctor shook his head. "Mr Levy believes Miss Ziva miscarried two days ago. We are supposedly keeping her under observation, to prevent any further complications. She is fine."

"So she's not pregnant?"

"No." Mike heaved a sigh of relief, glad that he would not have any bad news to relay to Gibbs with his next phone call. "We are keeping her in for as long as possible, but Mr Levy is growing impatient. He is threatening to discharge her against our advice."

"When?"

"I do not know. We are doing our best to keep her here and keep her safe, truly we are."

The greying agent nodded in understanding. "Her husband will be here in a few hours. As soon as they can get a Space-A flight."

The doctor looked down to his watch and then back up to the ex-agent. "She wants to speak to you. You can wait in my office until Mr Levy has left."

"Thank you."

* * *

"My friend has arranged a flight for us from Mexico City into Belize, and then a boat from there to the Cayman Islands, a flight to Havana and finally a flight to Spain. Then we travel through public transport on our separate identities." He grit his teeth as Ziva lay on her side, staring at her hands where they were curled onto the pillow. "Ziva, are you listening to me?" When she ignored him he kicked the base of the bed, jolting it. "Ziva, we have to leave now if we are going to make it to Mexico City on time."

"I am too tired, Malachi. I hurt." It was not difficult to make her voice sound as small as she needed it to.

"You hurt." He looked up to the ceiling. "Whereabouts do you hurt?"

"Everywhere, Malachi. Everything hurts."

He rubbed his face and stood up. "I will tell the doctor to give you more painkillers. I will see how long we can delay our transport for." He huffed as he stormed out of her curtained off area, going to find Dr López.

She closed her eyes, waiting to hear the shouting match that her captor was bound to start and not being disappointed when his loud, accented voice carried through the ward, bouncing off the linoleum floors. She waited until the argument subsided before pulling out the cellphone that she kept hidden underneath her pillow and typing in Tony's number, but before she could hit the call button she heard the curtain pull back across the rail and she jammed the phone beneath the covers, only to receive a gruff laugh from her intruder. She looked up to see Mike standing by the foot of her bed, scraggly hair and scruffy beard paired with a yellow polo shirt. "Lady Ziva. You've got a lot of people looking for you."

* * *

"We've got five seats on a Lockheed C-5 leaving in 55 minutes. Time to go, DiNozzo."

"Yeah, right. Um, can you guys give me a few minutes with the twins?"

"Sure." Gibbs nodded, ushering everybody inside the kitchen and hitting McGee when he tried to watch Tony out of the window. "Give him some privacy to say goodbye to his kids, McGee. He doesn't know when he'll see them again, or if he will even come back." The young man stared at his boss for a moment before nodding solemnly, walking over to Abby and hugging her goodbye.

"I'm gonna bring Ima back, okay? I'm not gonna be gone for long, and Auntie Abby, Grandma Jenny and Grandpa Ducky are gonna be looking after you. Which means you have to be really brave for me, just as brave as Ima is being at the moment, and I need you to not grow up too much whilst I'm gone, 'cause you've already grown in the time that Ima's been gone, and I am sure she doesn't want to miss any more." He was sat cross-legged on the picnic blanket that was now almost permanently laid out on the grass in the back garden, the picnic blanket that usually had someone entertaining the babies on it, providing there was no rain or it was not too cold. He tickled each of their tummies, chuckling quietly as each of them squealed. "You didn't listen to a thing I said, did you?" He sighed, signing _'goodbye'_ and ' _I love you'_ to the two of them before kissing each of them on the foreheads and looking over to see an empty kitchen, something he had not been expecting. He stood up slowly, sniffing and swiping at his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt, then stepping steadily across to the house, seeing Abby sat on the floor with her back against one of the cabinets.

"What happens if something goes wrong?" She looked up at him, her thumbnail disappearing between her teeth as she gnawed on it.

"Nothing's gonna go wrong, Abs."

"Tony, what if it does? Have you thought about that?" He nodded subtly and she let out a small, relieved sigh. "So, what happens?"

"Well, if I fail and don't manage to get Ziva home, and if I don't come home, then Gibbs is their registered next of kin. If Gibbs does not come home either, it is between you and McGee to decide what happens. That's what it says in mine and Ziva's wills. We talked it over with Gibbs and the director and decided that that was the most sensible option. It's what we want."

Abby nodded, standing up and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Bring her home, Tony. Please?"

He buried his face in the black material of her t-shirt and nodded into her shoulder as he squeezed her. "I'll try."

"Don't just try, Tony. Actually do it."

* * *

Abby had gone out into the garden once she had said goodbye to Tony, leaving Director Shepard, Ducky and Palmer to say their farewells on the doorstep. Despite having formed relations close enough to almost class as an alliance, Eli and Amit both knew that the goodbyes and wishes of good luck were not meant for them and so distanced themselves, walking over to the two NCIS chargers that were to be driven to the airfield.

It was a sombre affair, the silent goodbyes of knowing nods and unspoken words, the emotion of the situation too heavy for even the wise-cracking clown of the group to lift. The mood was only accentuated by the rolling clouds that were beginning to creep across the sky, bringing a foreboding darkness and casting deep shadows across the street. There was a sense of dread shrouding everyone like a thick cloak and settling deep into those with guts.

"Bring her home, my boy." Ducky said finally, and though it was directed to Tony it was something that all three of the agents bowed their heads and vowed to do.

"Stay safe out there." Jenny pleaded, her voice smaller than that which she usually used as Director. There was a timidness to it, full of fear. Another nod and the three men turned away, each slinging a duffle bag over their shoulder and stepping down the steps of the brownstone to join their two teammates for their mission.


	68. Chapter LXVIII

**I am a terrible person. I last updated this on the first of May. It is now the 22nd of July. That is nearly three months.**

 **My internet has been playing up lately, which really bugs me. One day, I am going to move somewhere that actually has a decent internet connection and where you can get a phone signal.**

 **I also had a lot of trouble writing this, though I am not really certain why. I just could not put the words down in the right order.**

LXVIII. The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

Tony let his head hang as he clasped his hands between his knees, grunting when the plane jolted and his shoulder twinged. "What are you going to do when we get her back?" He looked at the confusion on the face of his father-in-law. "Are you going to take her away from me?"

"Are you going to just lay down and let me?"

Tony whipped his head across to the older man, his face set in a hard glare. "Of course not. I love her. I'm not giving her up without a fight," Eli gave a low, rumbling chuckle and Tony grit his teeth. "I'm not kidding."

"I do not want to fight you for her, Agent DiNozzo."

"So you expect me to bow down to you?" He scoffed, shaking his head. "If you expect that, you know nothing about love."

"I know more about love than I expect you to understand, Agent DiNozzo, but no. I do not expect you to bow down to me," he narrowed his eyes. "I want my Ziva back. I am sure you would understand if someone were to take your little girl away. She is the only child I have left, and despite what you know about me, I do love her. But," he held his finger up when Tony moved to object, "I understand that she is wild, untameable. One look at her hair should tell you that – her mother used to fight so hard to control it," he chuckled lowly, "and wild things are not to be caged."

"So…what? You're gonna leave us?" He did not believe it for a second.

"Yes. If that is what she wishes."

"You do not want that, though."

"Of course I do not. I want to be there for her. I want to get to know my grandchildren, see them grow up, buy them shoes for school, help pay for them to go to college. I want to watch my only living daughter be happy, to watch her love whomever she chooses. Even if she chooses an American with a lacking upbringing."

"I was brought up Catholic, you know?" Tony offered, knowing that it was hardly the worst thing Eli could have said about him.

The older man looked to him, as if truly surprised. "No, I did not know that. It was never mentioned by my Ziva."

"Well, I'm not Catholic now. But my mother was," he nodded, running a hand through his hair. "I sort of lost faith, when she died, y'know?"

Eli was quiet for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly as he thought. "Ziva, she has had this problem many times. She sees too many people taken away from her that she cannot understand how Adonai can be good and yet still take loved people away from her. She always finds her faith again."

"She's certainly tenacious," Tony nodded, smiling at the thought of his wife.

* * *

"Adabelle DiNozzo?"

"Yep," Abby stood up, Bod on her hip and Ada in her car seat. She smiled at the nurse, who gave a hesitant, concerned look before leading them through from the waiting room into one of the offices.

"Adabelle DiNozzo for you."

Doctor Wilson looked up, slightly taken aback by the woman stood in the doorway of his office. Despite having toned down her fashion choice and avoiding heavy makeup whilst looking after the children, Abby was still not the epitome of a guardian with her black leather pants, black platforms, and worn Brain Matter t-shirt, her hair up in two high pigtails, and she was certainly not who the doctor was expecting.

"Abby Sciuto. I'm looking after the twins for a couple of days," she shifted uncomfortably under his scrutinising eyes.

"Is there a problem with Tony and Ziva?" He asked as she placed Ada's car seat on the exam table and sat down on one of the chairs, arranging Ichabod on her lap.

"Uh…I don't…" nobody had specified that what was going on was to be kept quiet. "They've had to go out of town for a bit. The guy that shot Tony, he threatened Ziva into leaving with him to Mexico. They've only just found her, arrived early this morning to try and bring her back."

The doctor sighed and looked down at his hands, folded on the table. "I am sorry. You visited the hospital frequently whilst they were here, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I've known Tony for years, he's practically a brother, and Ziva…well, she's my best girl friend. I mean, she would be my best friend, but that's Timmy, and nobody could replace Timmy, but there are some things you just can't talk to guys about, you know, and I love Timmy, I do, and I tell him nearly everything, but there are just some things that I feel kinda awkward talking to him about, you know, so…I'm talking too much," she looked at the stunned audiologist. "It's just 'cause I'm kinda nervous, y'know? Both about Ada and about Tony and Ziva. But Jen said that I should go, firstly because I'm their legal guardian if Tony, Ziva and Gibbs don't come back, but also because both of my parents were deaf, so I know about hearing and not hearing and even though Ducky's a doctor, he's not a specialist, plus he has to work, and so do Jen and Palmer, but I didn't, so it sort of fell to me. I'm babbling again, aren't I?"

"Just a little," he confirmed with a kind smile. "All I wanted to do today was check Adabelle's hearing, see if there has been any improvement even though, as I am sure you are aware, we hold little hope for such, and then the aim was to discuss plans for the future, whether we would look at surgery or not and look at learning ASL."

"Tony and Ziva said they did not want to go down the route of surgery. After weighing up the pros and the cons, and the risk of it not working, they said that they wanted it to be Ada's choice when she is old enough to decide. Both myself and Gibbs have been slowly teaching them ASL, but what with Ziva being gone for the past five weeks…Jen was wondering about classes?"

Doctor Wilson chuckled as he stepped around his desk and lifted Ada from her car seat and onto the examination table. "We have classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, ranging from beginner to advanced in abilities. Beginners is best for families with infants and young children, and as I am sure you are aware, babies can start picking up sign language earlier than they can speak," he had been examining the smaller of the twins as he spoke, scrawling notes down every so often. "You know, your knowledge has made this appointment a lot easier."

"That's why Jenny sent me," Abby shrugged.

"How are you coping, looking after them? It can't be easy, your friends in danger and you having to look after their children."

"It's…I wish it was not happening. I mean, I love them and all, but they need their parents."

"It is certainly not an ideal situation," the doctor sighed. "You seem to be coping well, though."

"Well, I'm not doing it on my own. I wouldn't have coped if I was," she bit her lip, shifting Bod on her lap. "Is there any improvement?"

He looked up and shook his head. "We were not expecting any. There was an off chance that it would improve, but it was slim."

Abby looked down to the top of Bod's head as he leant back against her chest, wondering what she would say to Tony and Ziva when they got back. "Should we start with ASL lessons now?"

"You can do," the doctor said, carrying Ada back over to her. "It is good for them to be around new people and infants and even if they are not learning, any adults with them can. I would also recommend for Tony and Ziva, when they get back, to take them to parent and baby groups. There will be first-time parents there and parents who've been through it all before, so they can expand the group of people that they can talk to. And, again, it is good for Adabelle and Ichabod to get used to being around children of their own age," he paused for a moment, handing over leaflets to her, "but I would recommend waiting to see what is happening with Tony and Ziva for parent and baby groups. When you know who is coming home."

"So they can be the ones to take the twins? Yeah, I get that," she nodded slowly, her mood plummeting as she thought about either one of them not coming home. "Thank you, Doctor."

"That's quite alright. You're doing an admirable thing, looking after them."

"They're family. It's what we do for family."

* * *

"I am sorry, Mr Franks. I could not stop him," López said as soon as Mike stepped into the ward, Gibbs and Tony hot on his heels. "They left half an hour ago. I tried to stop him, I did, but he went."

"Did she leave her stuff here?"

"Eh…I do not know," the doctor shook his head with a shrug, "you will have to check."

Mike huffed, walking through to where he knew Ziva's bed to be from where he had seen Malachi sat with her. He and Gibbs tossed the covers out of the way whilst Tony merely stood at the end of the bed and stared. "Tell me again why she was in the obstetrics ward?"

"So she didn't have to spend so much time with Malachi. She lied to him, DiNozzo." It was the fifth time it had been explained to him, but it seemed that the words simply refused to sink in. "Probie, this the phone she was using to call home?" He tossed the cell he had found tucked beneath her pillow over to Gibbs.

"Dunno. DiNozzo?" The phone was chucked over to Tony, who flipped the screen open and looked in the call log.

"Yeah," he nodded grimly. "She has no way of contacting us now," he sank down onto the bed behind him, tapping the buttons and navigating the basic phone.

"Hey, don't give up hope just yet," Gibbs snapped as he pulled out a scrap of paper from the pillowcase. "It has a schedule. No times, but details of destinations and modes of transport. They're getting a flight from Mexico City to Belize."

"If they left half an hour ago, we can still make it."

"Can we trust the Doc, though?" Tony looked to Mike, worrying his bottom lip.

"Yeah. From what I can see he's a good man."

"Right. We get down to Mexico City, get to the airport, see if McGee and Hadar can stop all flights. What with Mossad and NCIS combined authority, we might get somewhere," Gibbs said as the three of them made their way out of the ward, running down the stairs. "We do what we can about locating them with what we know - if in doubt we see if McGee can get security tape."

"What's happening?" McGee asked as they came rushing out of the hospital.

"Plug Mexico City airport into the GPS," Tony said, climbing into the back seat of the rental car whilst his younger counterpart continued to lean, rather distractedly, against the bonnet, slowly catching up with what Tony was saying.

"Mike's gonna follow us in his truck," the oldest of the MCRT nodded in the direction of his mentor as he opened the door to the driver's side. Eli held his hand out in front of him, blocking further movement and halting all action.

"Hadar will be able to drive faster, get us there quicker."

There was a moment in which everyone in the group was silent and the tension was palpable before Gibbs grumbled gruffly, slipping into the passenger's seat instead and leaving McGee to join Tony and Eli in the back.

* * *

"McGee, get to the control tower, the Director is fighting for the authority to ground all flights, just delay as many as possible. We're gonna find security tapes," Gibbs barked as they started jogging through the airport, Hadar, McGee and Mike going in one direction whilst the others took off to find the security office. After flashing their badges numerous times, they made their way to a room resembling MTAC, banks of screens showing images from across the airport. "NCIS, American Federal Agents. We're looking for these two people," he nodded to Tony, who held out two photographs, one of Ziva, one of Malachi.

"Digital copies are being sent over now. We know that they are here, can you run facial recognition?"

"No need," one of the Mexican officers pointed to one of the screens. "He has a private plane leaving in ten minutes."

"Where is that?" Tony and Eli demanded together, exchanging a tense glare before turning back to the screen.

"We take you," the rush of movement started again as they ran outside, jumping into a car with the airport's logo on the side, "the hangar is on the other side of the airport."

"Will we make it in the next ten minutes?"

"Should do."

"Should do isn't good enough."

"DiNozzo, not helping," Gibbs cautioned from the front seat. The younger of the two Americans closed his eyes, balling his fists and taking deep, deliberate breaths.

"So, uh, what are you stopping these two for?"

"He kidnapped my wife."

"My daughter."

"My agent."

"And this girl he is with is your wife, daughter, and agent?" The driver raised his eyebrows. "You're all close to this case then. This is not a conflict of interest?"

"Not with this case," Gibbs muttered as the car pulled up to the row of hangars.

"His plane is in the last hangar of the bank. They were escorted over fifteen minutes before you arrived."

"We'll take it from here. Can you call for back up, but tell them to hang back?" None of them waited for an answer as the trio bailed from the car, each of them unholstering weapons as they jogged over to the final hangar, the only one with the doors open. Tony could identify barked orders in his wife's first language, though what was being said, he did not know, but the cold, hard voice of the man who had shouted was enough to set him on edge. Gibbs looked over at Tony and then behind himself, searching the open tarmac. "Where's Eli?"

Tony shook his head, his grip tightening on his SIG. Gibbs sighed, exasperated, before nodding to the doors. They rounded the corner to see Malachi with Ziva's jaw held tightly in his hand, blood trickling from her nose and a dark bruise flourishing across her right eye socket. "Let her go, Malachi."

He looked up, a malicious glint in his eyes, and chuckled coldly. "Look, Ziva, your husband has come to die for you. This is the love I expect you to have for me."

"There's only one person dying today, Levy, and it's not gonna be DiNozzo."

He barked out a laugh. "I used to think you American's were stupid, but you got that right, Agent Gibbs," his reflexes were fast, and the move unexpected. He was holding Ziva to his chest, one arm around her torso whilst the other held a gun to her temple. "It is time for you to prove your love for me, Ziva."

She stared at Tony, blinking away tears before they could blur her vision. She wondered whether he knew what she was thinking, understood her pleas to him, the silent begging for him to go home and look after their children for her.

"Ada and Bod are doing really well, y'know? They're sleeping a lot more, and, uh, oh, Bod grinned at me the other day. A proper grin, not just a reflex. He's got the DiNozzo charm. And Ada, she's doing so well, she's putting on weight, which the doctor says is a good sign, and she's starting to catch Bod up in length. They've both got so big," he had no idea what he was doing, but it was the only thing he could think of – try and calm her down. "Ada's got a doctor's appointment today with Doc Wilson, so Abby should be taking her. They miss you, y'know. We all do, really. I mean Abby…she's started dressing like a normal person. And McGee – he hasn't played a computer game in a month. Ducky only tells his stories to the twins now and I swear the director's only been in her office twice over the past month," his voice was shaking, "and then there's me. I don't know what I'm doing anymore, Ziva. I don't know where I am, I never know what day it is and I've lost all concept of time."

Malachi started backing away, towards the Cessna Citation, pointing to Tony with his weapon. "Okay, thank you for that lovely speech, Agent DiNozzo. I am sure Ziva will contemplate it whilst we are flying to Belize. Now, if you do not mind, we will be on our wa-" he was cut off by a gunshot and a spray of red.

 **I seem good at ending chapters of this with gunshots. I did promise that I would fix this mess in this chapter, but I decided not to. It will be done next chapter, though. Pinky-promise. Cross my heart and hope to die. That is a really weird way of promising truthfulness…**


End file.
